by Eric Vall
“It’s okay,” I said with a grin. “So then, where is the real one? Wouldn’t you have been able to feel it?”
Varleth growled, then closed his eyes so that he could concentrate. After a moment, he opened them again.
“It’s faint, but it’s toward the direction of the town,” he answered.
“That’s out of the way,” I said with a thoughtful frown. “It could be anywhere in town.”
“It has to be close enough that I can feel it from here,” he reasoned.
I crossed my arms and considered that. I still thought it was the best idea that I follow Varleth and keep him safe in Erin’s stead, especially because we didn’t know where the gate was for this rift or where Gawain had gone off to. I had to hope that when we destroyed the catalyst, he would be spit back out, too.
Thinking of Gawain reminded me that Erin was also hurt.
“Erin, you okay up there?” I called up to her, but there was no response. I rolled my eyes and commanded my baroquer, who had patiently followed us, to lower its hand so that I could see her. When I did, I gasped.
Her face was paler than before, and a greenish cast had started to overtake her veins as the gastrotoad toxins seeped into her system. Her breathing was ragged, and there was a cold sheen of sweat on her brow.
“She isn’t doing so well.” I brushed some of the bright orange hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Don’t worry, Erin. We’ll get you home soon.”
I turned back to Varleth who simply frowned.
“All right. Let’s move then,” I muttered.
No sooner had the words left my mouth did an awful sound tear through the sky. Varleth and I whipped our heads in the direction of the ruins, and our mouths hung open.
The gate that we had previously known to be the mock entrance rumbled, and through it came the third and final pyrewyrm that had escaped the rift in Harrow’s Gullet. We had already fought one, and the other had been used as a sacrifice to open a rift under Bathi Highlands weeks ago. This one, though, was very much alive. Its serpentine body and wormlike head wiggled as it re-entered like it was glad to be home after a month and a half long vacation. Pyrewyrms had no eyes and no mouth, but the sound they emitted was enough to be fatal to those who heard it, and neither of us had our earmuffs. They were made of bandersnatch skin and marmon tusks and were specially designed for fighting against them.
“This isn’t happening.” I stared in disbelief, and then I closed my eyes, refocused myself, and opened them once more. “Find the catalyst, Varleth. I’ll see you on the other side.”
I swallowed thickly before I ran back to my baroquer and climbed into its hand beside Erin. I didn’t want to take her with me with the poison still playing havoc with her system, but leaving her with Varleth didn’t seem like the best decision either. She would slow him down, and the quicker we got out of here, the better off we would be. To leave her alone was out of the question.
“I can help,” she rasped, and I shook my head.
“You need to rest,” I insisted, and I brushed my hand over her cheek.
Erin groaned weakly. I had to hide her someplace safe until we could get her properly treated.
“Wait!” the banisher asked. “What about you?”
“I’m going to distract it. Don’t worry about me!” I replied with a smirk. I reached my hand out, and Varleth met it with a fist bump.
“Good luck,” he wished, and he ran off past the wall of the Academy and began his search through the town to find the catalyst stone.
As for me, I was headed back to what would likely be my hardest, most challenging fight to date.
Chapter 16
We left Varleth, and the baroquer carried us back to the ruins of the arena where the pyrewyrm lurked. I cradled Erin’s head in my lap and ran my fingers through her hair as I mentally prepared myself for this fight. Truth be told, I was nervous. I was completely unequipped to fight a pyrewyrm on my own, but it had gotten out of the rift once before. Who was to say it wasn’t capable of doing it again? I needed to make sure that it wasn’t able to re-enter the real world and cause any more havoc.
The only way to do that was to see to its demise once and for all.
I didn’t have the earmuffs so that would be a problem. I thought of maybe using one of my monsters to block out the sound which might work if I could figure out a way to execute it right. And the only monster I had that could fly was the kalgori, and though it might be able to put up a good fight, I didn’t see that as being an effective tactic, and as I tried to figure out what to do, I got an idea. I only hoped that I’d be able to pull it off.
The closer we got as we approached the pyrewyrm, the more I anxiously went over ideas and ticked off my supplies in my head. I still had the reserve of elixir even if it was only half. I thought about giving it to Erin, but I wasn’t a healer. I didn’t want to take the risk of giving her something and having it react badly to the poison in her body. On the one hand, it might clear it up, and she’d be fighting fit, but on the other, the results were grim, and I wasn’t willing to take that chance.
I had all my crystals too though the majority of them were no match for the grade A monster that awaited us. Then my two daggers. They might come in handy if I had to take the pyrewyrm down by my own hand which I was willing to do if it meant it would ensure the safety of the other side.
I took a deep breath. Erin’s breath was still shallow and harsh. I scouted for a place that I could let her rest while I took care of the pyrewyrm. We were almost there, and there wasn’t anywhere that wasn’t entirely out of harm’s way.
That was when I saw something perched against the side of a broken wall. From up here, it looked like a red and white blemish in the dirt, but upon closer inspection, that something was not just anything. In fact, it wasn’t a thing at all. It was a person, the person I had been looking for.
“Gawain!” I shouted, and he might have tilted his head back to look up, but it was hard to tell. Either way, he hadn’t made any visible sign of movement, and that was not good. There was no way that the pyrewyrm hadn’t seen my baroquer, but it seemed to wait patiently, as though it knew that we were going to come for it one way or another.
We stopped a few yards from Gawain, and the baroquer lowered us to the ground. I leapt out of the palm of its hand and gasped when I saw Gawain’s state. He was pale like he’d lost a lot of blood, and while I could see blood on him, it didn’t look like it had been enough to cause his state to be so ragged.
I ran to him and knelt beside him. His eyes were unfocused, but he was still conscious.
“I should have listened to you,” he breathed, and he slumped forward a little.
It was then that I’d caught the extent of his wounds. On his back were two, symmetrical holes on either side of his spine, just big enough to look like a little girl somehow punched through his skin with her bare hands. His cloak was tattered, almost shredded to nothing, and the back of his uniform was completely saturated in his own blood. The rock behind him was stained with it as well.
Well, shit.
I ran my hands over my face, which in hindsight was a bad idea, as I wiped Gawain’s blood down my cheeks, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.
“What the hell happened to you?” I tried not to sound completely horrified, despite being exactly that.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted after a moment. “I was chasing the little girl and the next thing I knew I was in a completely different place, far different from anything I’d seen. It was cold and completely overrun with high-grade monsters.”
Gawain coughed and groaned in pain as he slumped back against the stone with a slight wince. “I couldn’t really see where I was, but I followed the sound of her voice, and she led me somewhere. The next I knew, she was whispering directly into my ear even though I could see her standing several feet away from me.”
Gawain shivered, and I fished the rest of the elixir out of my pouch. It wouldn’t be enough to heal him fully, but it wo
uld close the wounds on his back and stop the bleeding. I didn’t give him a choice and poured the liquid between his slightly parted and cracked lips. A bit of it trickled down his chin, but he swallowed most of it. After a moment, some of the color started to return to his face, and he took a few steadier breaths, then continued his story.
“I couldn’t understand her. It was a language I hadn’t heard before. I felt a sharp pain in my back, and then I woke up here. I wanted to prove myself, and all I ended up doing was making a fool of myself again,” he finished, but even as he started to look better, the look of defeat on his face was prominent.
I shook my head. “You thought you were doing the right thing, Gawain.”
“Yes, well, look where it got me,” he replied and finally looked me in the eyes. “What about you? What happened after I left?”
“I went looking for you.” I laughed a little. “Then got lost, fought a cyclops, and then Varleth tried to destroy the catalyst, but it was the one from the Magicae Nito. The real one is somewhere in the town.”
“Shit, this just gets worse and worse,” Gawain swore and shook his head. “The girl?”
“Oh, Erin?” I pointed to the baroquer, who put its hand down. It was hard to see from here, but if nothing else, it was obvious she wasn’t well. “Gastrotoad gas attack. She got a good whiff, I think, so she might be down for a while.”
Gawain frowned, and I don’t think I’d ever seen him look quite so genuinely sad. “She’s going to be okay though, right?”
I nodded despite being a bit unsure myself. “Yeah, she will, but I need to get her somewhere safe so that I can fight that pyrewyrm.”
Gawain twisted his features. “Pyrewyrm?”
“You know, the giant flying dragon-worm that’s about a hundred yards away and probably wants to absorb your soul for breakfast?” I rolled my eyes as I teased him.
“Piss off,” he snorted, then weakly climbed to his feet. It took him a few moments to get his bearings, but once he did, he looked a thousand times better than he had before.
“I’m ready,” he said and ignited the balls of flames in his hands. As soon as they appeared, however, they began to flicker out. “What?”
“Your mana is too low to maintain a flame,” I noted.
Immediately, Gawain whipped his gun out and tried to pump his mana through. Sure enough, it lit up once, but then nothing. He swore under his breath.
“You’re not fighting this one, Gawain,” I told him earnestly. “Leave it to me.”
Gawain looked me up and down. I’m sure I looked a mess myself, but I was more fit to fight this thing than any of the three of us.
“Listen,” I continued, “I need you to take Erin as far away as you can. I don’t want either of you to get caught up in this.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t take orders from yokels?” he barked, eyes furious for a brief moment, and then he softened again. “Fine, but you better come back for us.”
I stood with a hand on my hip and smirked as I gave him a victory pose. “Of course I will.”
Gawain rolled his eyes so hard that I thought he might have hurt himself with the groan that followed. “Just give me the stupid girl.”
We walked back over to Erin, who was still half unconscious and curled up in the palm of the baroquer’s hand. I placed my hand on her forehead. She was still burning hot to the touch. With a deep set frown, I picked her up and handed her gently to Gawain, who handled her with a surprisingly delicate hand.
“She looks worse up close,” he commented as he lifted her up in his arms, and at first, I thought I saw a sneer on his lips, but it quickly melted to clear concern on his face.
“Let’s hope Varleth finds the catalyst soon.” I sighed. “Until then, keep her safe until I get back.”
“Hey,” he said as he spun back to look at me. “You sure?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Get her out of here.”
“Come back alive, alright?” he looked away from me so that I didn’t see his face.
“What? You wanna get a beer afterward or something?” I tried to laugh, but it came out dry and hollow.
“I still want to beat you,” he sighed. “So don’t let that flying worm kill you. Or I’ll be pissed.”
“Don’t let anything happen to Erin,” I said.
Gawain nodded, and despite his still weak legs, he managed to carry her away at a decently paced jog. I watched them leave for a moment before I turned my attention to the pyrewyrm. It still circled further ahead, and even though it had no eyes, I felt like I could see it peering at me with each pass in my direction. It was unnerving.
I gathered my gumption and took a deep breath as I climbed back atop my baroquer. I took my place atop its helmet and gave it the command.
“Let’s go.”
The baroquer marched. It was slow, and as we edged closer and closer, the anticipation of the battle crept up my spine.
I took out my bullet bass crystal and smashed it between my hands over my head. I was engulfed in light, and when it dissipated, I was clad with my own skin made of metal. I was no Orenn with his metallouge abilities, but hopefully, this would help. At the very least, I hoped it would block the awful cries that pyrewyrms had a tendency to unleash.
I felt my mana slip a little, but it was nothing dangerous. It would take minimal concentration to keep the armor on, but I had enough experience splitting my mind between two monsters that I could handle it. The real challenge was going to be splitting it between a third.
The speed slug didn’t take much mana, nor did it take a lot of concentration, but I was still a little nervous to have to divide my mana and my attention so thin. I took the crystal between my fingers and threw it down onto the baroquer.
This was it. As soon as the speed slug fastened itself to the back of the baroquer’s neck, we took off at a high-speed sprint and closed the distance between us and the pyrewyrm in mere moments.
With my own loud battle cry, the baroquer heaved its giant sword off the ground and dragged the tips across the dirt and debris. It made a sharp slicing sound as it came up and whooshed through the air, but the pyrewyrm being a primarily aerial fighter easily dodged the attack despite the speed slug’s boost with one massive flap of its wings. I gritted my teeth as the baroquer tried again. This time, it clipped the tip of its foot, but if the pyrewyrm howled out in pain, I didn’t hear it.
My plan had worked. The baroquer had massive reach and was immensely strong, but so very slow. Combined with the speed slug, it had a chance to use that size and might to full effect.
The baroquer brought the blade up for the third time, but by then, the pyrewyrm was already learning my tricks. It rocketed upwards, then shot down at us at an angle. It never actually collided with us, but the sheer force from the wind that buffeted off its wings was almost as strong as the gusts from the cyclops’ storm from before. I was fast enough to latch on tight to the iron horn next to me. I kept my footing, and when it came down a second time, I was ready.
The pyrewyrm swooped down again, this time from behind. Maybe it thought it would catch me off-guard, but not today. I played along though, confident in the boosted speed of my baroquer, and at the last second, I mentally commanded the baroquer use that speed to spin and quickly thrust its sword upwards.
The pyrewyrm fumbled as it tried to spiral around the thrust, but it was too slow. The massive sword connected with its left wing, spearing through the meat of it with a burst of blood, and the pyrewyrm spiraled to the ground. Still, it managed to land on both feet in spite of its injury.
We didn’t give it time to recover, though, and we charged at it with as much speed as we could, sword in front and fully ready to take advantage of the pyrewyrm’s now injured wing.
The pyrewyrm, however, had other plans. While its left wing was too damaged to allow it to fly, it was still able to produce the rhin that emanated from glands on its wings. It turned to face us, and suddenly, we were encompassed in a cloud
of the corrupted essence. The bullet bass armor couldn’t stand up against it, and it crumbled to pieces as it fell from my body.
Instantaneously, my ears began to ring, and my head began to pound as the cry of the pyrewyrm pierced my ears, and I screamed in agony as I covered them and fell to my knees. I scrunched my eyes shut, as though it would help block out the sound, even though I knew that to be completely false.
When I did crack my eye open, I noted that my speed slug had begun to shrivel from the onslaught, and I could feel the baroquer grow more and more sluggish, though I thought that maybe that was more from the effects of the rhin than the weakening speed slug. I withdrew both the slug and the bullet bass before they could sustain any more damage. I was thankful for the mask on my face, but with the high concentration of rhin that I was being bombarded with, I didn’t actually know if it was helping anymore. My chest hurt, and everything felt a little bleaker than it had when I first entered this fight.
I thought briefly that maybe I should have come up with a plan B. It might have been a smart move. Who doesn’t go into a battle like this without a plan B? I did, apparently, and now I had to think of a way to come back from this. As the pain in my head overcame me, I lost balance and slid from the top of the baroquer’s helmet, and the rush of air made my cloak flutter around me as I made my descent to the ground. I was powerless to stop myself, and forty-something feet was a long way down. Blood trickled down the side of my face from my ears, and everything, even the black rhin, began to have a fuzzy sort of glow to it.
The next time I opened my eyes was to see my baroquer standing guard over me, sword in hand as it shielded me from an onslaught of furious claw and wing attacks from the pyrewyrm. One after another, the iron clanged and echoed across the Shadowscape as the wyrm battered my faithful monster.
I sat up painfully, and as I took in the sight of my baroquer, I noticed two things. The first was that its armor was scratched and dinged in places that it wasn’t before, and I wondered if it had taken all that damage for me while I was knocked out. The second was that its flames were no longer red and orange. Instead, they had a pinkish hue to them, and they seemed to burn brighter and hotter. I wondered if that was an effect brought on by the rhin.