Frostborn: The Broken Mage

by Jonathan Moeller

  Ridmark was willing to oblige.

  Of course, the malophage was probably far more capable of carrying out that threat.

  Blue fire flickered over the malophage’s central bulk, and Mara appeared atop the creature, her short sword flickering as she stabbed. She landed three blows before one of the Devourer’s tentacles snapped up to remove her, and she vanished, reappearing next to Calliande. All three of her blows had penetrated the malophage’s rubbery hide, but none of them had reached the organs floating in the orange-tinted slime. Her blade had simply been too short.

  Another curtain of acidic mist rolled over the malophage, and the Devourer’s dozens of mouths screamed in fury, cursing in Latin and orcish and dwarven and languages that Ridmark did not know. Antenora threw a small fireball at the malophage, and it enveloped the creature’s sagging body in a blast of flame, the horrible stench of burned malophage flesh filling the chamber. The Devourer shuddered in pain, and Ridmark darted forward, slapping aside tentacles. If he could get close enough, he could wound the malophage with his dwarven axe, perhaps damaging one of the organs in the translucent orange slime. That had hurt the malophage below Coldinium, and even if the Devourer was older and stronger, perhaps it had some of the same vulnerabilities.

  Yet no matter how many tentacles he knocked aside, others took their place. He could not get any closer. Ridmark stepped back, a new plan coming to him as another wave of acidic mist washed over the Devourer.

  “Kharlacht!” he shouted, stepping out of reach of the tentacles. “Help me clear a path! Arandar, Gavin, follow us.” Both the Swordbearers caught his eye and nodded. “Strike once we’ve cleared the way. Morigna, distract it.”

  Kharlacht moved to Ridmark’s side, the blade of his greatsword gleaming with the vile ichor of the malophage. Gavin and Arandar followed, their soulblades burning with harsh white fires. A wave of pain went through Ridmark’s head as Arandar drew closer, a legacy of his broken bond with the soulblade, but he ignored it. He would feel far worse pain if they didn’t stop the Devourer.

  The huge malophage turned to attack, its tentacles like a storm of razors. Another column of white mist rolled over its body, and the Devourer’s mouths erupted with screams of fury, shouting curses and threats in a dozen different languages. The creature lurched forward, moving towards Morigna, Calliande, and Antenora.

  “Go!” said Ridmark.

  He and Kharlacht charged. Kharlacht slashed with his greatsword, cutting through one of the tentacles. Ridmark beat aside another tentacle and clubbed aside a second and then a third. Kharlacht severed another of the appendages, and for just a moment the path was clear to the center of the Devourer’s body. Ridmark could not have covered the distance, even with the augmentation of Calliande’s magic.

  But Gavin and Arandar had the power of their soulblades.

  Both Swordbearers shot forward in a blur of white fire. Arandar reached the Devourer’s body first, and buried Heartwarden to the hilt in the leathery, translucent flesh, the blade piercing one of the misshapen organs suspended in the glowing slime. The Devourer let out a horrible wail, every one of its mouths screaming in unison, and Gavin drove Truthseeker home, striking another one of the organs. The Devourer shuddered again, and Arandar ripped Heartwarden free and struck once more. Calliande loosed a blast of white fire that drilled into the Devourer’s core, and the malophage’s tentacles thrashed like ropes caught in a gale. For a moment Ridmark was sure that the battle was over, that the Swordbearers had dealt a mortal blow to the creature…

  Then the Devourer screamed again, and its tentacles spun in all directions.

  One of the tentacles caught Ridmark across the chest and knocked him to the floor. Arandar and Gavin and Kharlacht fell as well, and the malophage leaped backwards, its huge, quivering bulk landing thirty yards away.

  Then its form blurred and changed. The malophage became…something else.

  Ridmark did not have a word to describe the Devourer’s new form. It had an armored shell like a turtle, albeit a shell studded with glistening spikes as long as Ridmark’s arm. It had the legs of a giant spider, their segments covered in bristling black hairs as stiff and as sharp as steel wire. The long, barbed tail of a scorpion rose over its shell, terminating in three barbs that dripped with poison. The serrated pincers of a scorpion reached from below its shell, and three scaled necks rose from its neck, ending in the heads of giant serpents, their yellow eyes malevolent. Perhaps such a creature had once walked whatever hellish world the malophages called home. Or maybe the malophage had simply created the form for itself, stealing the most useful organs from creatures it had encountered upon this world.

  “Well,” Jager said. “That’s just not fair.”

  Ridmark got to his feet, and Kharlacht and the Swordbearers followed suit. Caius came to Ridmark’s side. He had returned his mace to his belt, and instead carried the massive hammer of dark elven steel he had taken from the Warden’s armory. Antenora flung another blast of elemental fire, and Morigna unleashed a curtain of acidic mist, but both magical attacks bounced off the armored shell without doing noticeable damage.

  “Now what?” said Gavin, watching the Devourer.

  The creature took a few creaking, skittering steps forward, its poisoned barbs waving back and forth over its shell, the serpent heads hissing atop their long necks.

  “Aim for the legs,” said Ridmark. “Caius, try to crack the shell. If we can damage the armor, perhaps we can land blows on the more vulnerable areas.”

  Yet Arandar and Gavin had both dealt grievous wounds to the malophage with their soulblades. Ridmark had inflicted a similar wound to the malophage under Coldinium, and that had been enough to force the Hunter to flee until it could recover. The soulblades were a far more powerful weapon than the orcish war axe Ridmark had used, but they had not been enough to drive off the Devourer.

  Then the Devourer surged forward, and Ridmark had no more time to plan, only to act.

  ###

  Calliande threw a burst of white fire into the malophage, and the huge creature shuddered.

  Ridmark and the others attacked. Kharlacht drove his greatsword through one of the Devourer’s spindly legs, and the creature stumbled. Caius darted into the gap, swinging his massive hammer, and the head of dark elven steel struck the armored shell, breaking off several of the spines and pulverizing a portion of the shell. The serpent heads blurred, jaws yawning wide to bite Caius. Blue fire swirled over the head nearest to the dwarven friar, and Mara appeared atop it, driving her short sword down. The serpent head reared back with a scream, and the other two moved to bite her, but Mara disappeared, reappearing next to Calliande.

  Gavin darted under the lashing serpent heads and struck with Truthseeker, driving the soulblade into the malophage’s damaged armor. The Devourer reared back with a scream of fury, and before it recovered, Calliande hit it again with a blast of white fire, striking the damaged section of the armor shell. The magic sank into the Devourer, and the malophage skittered backwards, moving away from Ridmark and the Swordbearers. Calliande drew more power into herself, preparing to strike again. While maintaining the augmentation spells around the others, she did not have much power left to attack. Yet every bit helped, and she concentrated, preparing another strike.

  “I fear,” said Antenora in her raspy voice, “that we are doing little damage.”

  “They cracked the shell,” said Morigna.

  “It does not matter,” said Antenora. “Already the wounds heal. The soulblades are potent weapons, but the malophage has a vast reserve of power. Certainly its reserve will last longer than our stamina.”

  The Devourer circled to the right, turning the intact sections of its shell towards Calliande. Before it did, she saw the wounds Gavin had carved into its body healing, new legs sprouting from the severed stumps of its old ones, the damaged shell repairing itself. Ridmark and the others attacked, managing to sever one of the Devourer’s legs, but the malophage moved out of reach long enough to r
egenerate the leg.

  “She’s right,” said Mara. “The malophage’s aura…it isn’t changing. No matter how much we hurt it, its aura doesn’t change. It’s powerful enough that we can’t really hurt it, even with a soulblade.”

  “I suspect it exists partially in the material world and partially within the threshold,” said Antenora. “If any damage is done to it in the material world, then it simply draws upon the power of the threshold and reconstitutes itself.”

  “You can enter the threshold, can you not?” said Morigna. “Perhaps you can travel there and damage the creature.”

  “I could,” said Antenora. “The spell would take time, though. It is also probable the creature is as strong in the threshold as the material world. I might travel to the threshold only to have it kill me.” She shrugged. “The Keeper would have the power to destroy this creature by severing its link to the threshold. Perhaps our best plan is to retrieve your staff and then face it.”

  “We can’t,” said Calliande, looking towards the dais and the invisible ward that stretched across the stairs. “If I take down that ward, the Devourer will just follow us inside and kill us.”

  “Then we must damage the Devourer enough that it cannot pursue us,” said Morigna. “Perhaps this shall help.”

  She struck the end of her staff against the ground, purple fire flaring up its length. Morigna swayed a little on her feet, and Mara caught her elbow, keeping her upright. A ripple rolled through the stone floor, a ripple that intensified as it approached the malophage. The distortion flowed around Ridmark and the Swordbearers and the others without touching them, but the floor snapped like a banner caught in the wind beneath the Devourer. Its narrow legs let it move quickly, but they had not been designed for moving on uneven surfaces, and Morigna’s spell all but flung the malophage into the air. The Devourer struck the floor and bounced, its weight driving cracks into its armored shell and snapping off several of its spikes.

  And for just a moment, the Devourer was vulnerable.

  Calliande hit the creature with a burst of white fire before it recovered, and the Devourer twitched as it tried to regain its balance. Kharlacht hewed off one of its legs with a sweep of his greatsword, and then took a second, causing the Devourer to fall again. Caius’s hammer split open a section of the shell, luminous orange slime bubbling forth. Gavin and Arandar struck, stabbing Truthseeker and Heartwarden into the damaged shell, the soulblades sinking deep into the malophage’s corrupted flesh. The creature loosed a furious wail of pain and rage, and Gavin and Arandar stabbed again and again, their soulblades pulsing with white fire. Calliande hit the Devourer with another blast of white fire, and the malophage jerked, trying to get its remaining legs beneath it. For a moment Calliande felt a surge of exultation. They were winning! They…

  The Devourer screamed and thrust its remaining legs in all directions, the serpent heads and scorpion tails stabbing madly. Ridmark and Kharlacht went down, knocked over by the lash of a leg. Gavin stumbled back, a stinger rebounding from his dark elven armor. Jaws closed around Arandar’s cuirass, lifted him into the air, and flung him. The Swordbearer tumbled and hit the ground with a clatter of armor. The Devourer shrank into itself, and once again its form blurred and changed.

  This time it became something like looked like ape nine feet high, albeit an ape with four arms and a scorpion’s tail, its body hairless and covered in overlapping black scales. It had the head of a snake, and claws like daggers jutted from the fingers of all four of its hands.

  Calliande summoned power and attacked, but the Devourer’s new form moved with inhuman speed and grace, dodging the attack with ease, and flung itself at Ridmark.

  ###

  Calliande’s shouted warning echoed in Ridmark’s ears, and he snapped his staff up and got to one knee.

  It was just in time, too. The Devourer lunged at him, and a sweep of Ridmark’s staff deflected the claws that would have opened his throat. He thrust at the Devourer, but the creature danced aside, moving so fast that even with Calliande’s magic he could barely follow its movements. The malophage flicked one of its four hands at him, and Ridmark dodged, but not fast enough, and one of the claws opened a burning cut down his left forearm.

  He gripped his staff, trying to ignore the pain in his left arm, and launched a flurry of swings at the Devourer. The malophage avoided his blows with ease. Its new form had traded size and armor for blinding speed, but the malophage was still hideously strong. Its claws stabbed for his face again, and Ridmark realized he could not get out of the way in time. Instead of dodging, he threw himself into the blow, and the black claws struck his chest, shrieking against his armor of dark elven steel. The power of the strike knocked Ridmark backwards, and he hit the ground hard, the breath exploding from his lungs.

  He was pretty sure he had broken a rib, and he could not get his breath back.

  The Devourer loomed over him, all four arms drawn back for the kill. Ridmark heard both Morigna and Calliande shout something, and a burst of white fire shot at the malophage. The Devourer twisted around the blow with fluid grace, and dodged the column of acidic mist Morigna conjured. Ridmark had just managed to start breathing again when the Devourer lunged at him.

  A wave of frustration rolled through him. He had come close, so close, to keeping his promise to Calliande, only to fail at the very end.

  Gavin lunged at the Devourer, Truthseeker a shard of fire in his hands. The malophage twisted away, one of its hands catching Gavin across the arm. Gavin stumbled and went to one knee, and Ridmark hauled himself up, blood trickling down his fingers from the cut on his arm. That was bad. If the cut was bleeding that much, he might bleed out before much longer.

  Though he suspected the Devourer would not let him remain alive long enough for that to become a problem.

  ###

  Calliande watched the battle, trying to think of something, anything, to turn the tide. The Devourer’s new shape moved too fast for her to strike with a spell, too fast for Morigna or Antenora to use their magic against it, too fast for Mara to travel behind it and stab it. Ridmark, Kharlacht, Jager, Caius, and the two Swordbearers had regained their feet, and fought the malophage, but the Devourer blurred through them like a storm. All six of them had taken wounds, and were visibly tiring.

  She had to think of something.

  “Your staff,” said Antenora. “You must go and retrieve your staff as quickly as possible, Keeper.”

  “I can’t,” Calliande said through gritted teeth. The effort of maintaining the augmentation spells and striking the Devourer was draining her.

  “The Keeper’s magic is the only thing that can stop the creature,” said Antenora.

  “If I go through the ward,” said Calliande, “the ward will go down, and the Devourer can claim the staff after it kills us.”

  “If the Keeper’s magic is the only thing that can harm the Devourer,” said Mara, “why not use the ward to harm the Devourer?”

  Calliande blinked. “How? The creature is not foolish enough to attack the ward.”

  “You are the Keeper, whether you remember it or not,” said Mara. “Perhaps the ward will obey you.”

  That…actually made a great deal of sense.

  Calliande sprinted for the stairs to the dais, casting the spell to sense the presence of magic as she did so. She climbed the stairs, and felt the deep, resonant power of the ward before her. Calliande stretched out her hand and touched the ward, and as with the previous ward, she felt the spell’s power start to unravel.

  She commanded it to halt, attempting to shape the power the way she shaped a spell drawn from the magic of the Well.

  And to her surprise, the ward responded.

  Calliande concentrated, drawing back the power of the ward. White light flickered around the dais, and she felt the ward disarm itself. She focused, holding the power in place. It felt like trying to hold back a tide with her bare hands, and she would not be able to hold it for long.

  “To the dais!
” she shouted as loud as she could, shooting a glance over her shoulder. “Hurry. Hurry!”

  Morigna cast a spell, sending another ripple through the floor. It caught the Devourer and sent the malophage sprawling. Ridmark and the others turned, intending to strike while the Devourer was off its feet.

  “Go!” shouted Calliande, desperately wishing she had time to explain. “To me!”

  “To the dais!” shouted Mara. Her voice got fainter as she traveled to stand closer to Ridmark. “Calliande has a plan! Run!”

  She traveled away, and Ridmark sprinted with the others as the Devourer got back to its feet. Mara appeared next to Calliande, and then Antenora and Morigna reached the dais. Jager was smaller and faster than the others and came next. The Devourer charged after them, running on all six of its limbs, and Morigna cast the spell to fold the earth. The Devourer veered to avoid the ripple, leaping over it, but the leap slowed the creature for an instant. The Swordbearers reached the dais next, driven by the might of their soulblades, and then Ridmark, Caius, and Kharlacht scrambled up the stairs in a knot.

  Calliande jumped back and shouted, releasing the power of the ward.

  It snapped back into place with a flare of brilliant white fire, and for a moment a translucent glowing haze filled the edge of the dais. It looked faint and ephemeral, yet the Devourer slammed into the haze as if it had been made of granite. The creature rebounded from the wall of light, and the expression on its reptilian face was almost comical.

  Calliande released the power she had held, a wave of dizziness rolling through her. Once again she had channeled too much magic in too short of a time. Her knees turned to water, and she started to fall, but Ridmark seized her right arm and Antenora her left.

  More white light flashed before her eyes as the malophage flung itself at the ward, striking again and again.