by James Green
The maddened Saprophytes crashed into us a moment later. Ulmar swung his blade in a wide arc, and the glowing edge effortlessly cut through the weak flesh of mushroom-addled cultists. Two men fell in four pieces, and a woman’s arm arced through the air before landing in the mass of bodies behind her.
I slammed my shield into the first cultist and thrust Rime’s point into the stomach of another. The howling madman pulled himself up the blade as his filthy claws quested for my face. More crazed people pressed in behind him, a nightmarish wall of flesh seeking my life. I reached for Rime’s power and invoked Ice Wave.
The cultist impaled on Rime’s point exploded, the rushing wave of ice shattering his body and hurling large chunks into the air. The maddened cultists in front of me were flung backward as the rushing frozen wall slammed into them, frost coating their limbs as it tumbled them ahead of it like flotsam in a tsunami.
That put quite a few of them out of the fight, but many were left. I rushed into the momentary gap the Ice Wave had left and pushed Mortis’s power into Mithra while also drawing it into myself. I ground my teeth as an incredible agony roared inside my head and shot through the rest of my body. Using the higher-ranked orb seemed to sear my insides with fire. A wispy black aura pulsed off my skin, and smoky tendrils reached out to embrace the maddened cultists closing in around me.
I spun and slashed with Rime’s long, leaf-bladed point while I cracked brittle bones with the rim of my shield. Blood sprayed as every slash found vulnerable flesh, but pain meant nothing to these cultists. A streak of black arced over my head as Mithra in his new form jumped into the fray.
Mithra, Spectral Wolf, Rank: D
He was magnificent and terrifying. A wolf the size of a pony, he appeared to be made of a thick, black fog. His claws and teeth were a glowing white and his eyes a deep, dark red. When he moved, he seemed to flow across the ground like a black thundercloud, enveloping his foes in shadows.
The cultists turned on the wolf, but their blows had no effect. When they touched him, their hands would pass into the black fog and it would drink their life force. Despite being largely insubstantial, Mithra’s jaws could still rip and tear. The cultists fell before him like wheat before the scythe.
I pushed deeper into the mass of cultists, taking a life or a limb with nearly every cut. I felt amazing, energy flowing into me from all directions as the aura granted by Mortis drank the life all around me. I laughed in sheer joy as I reaped. Any wounds the claws or teeth of my victims had opened instantly closed as I used their own life-force to defeat them.
Something stung me, not my flesh but me, nonetheless. I turned to see Ulmar wading through a thinning line of cultists, his glowing blade claiming lives and limbs. My aura reached out for him again and recoiled as the Holy energy of Ulmar’s sword stung it.
The cultists were thinning out, so with some regret, I extinguished Mortis’s aura. Deep weariness settled in, and I sagged. I blocked the scrabbling blow of a cultist with my shield and took his heart with Rime, but my limbs were heavy.
All around, the mushrooms ceased to glow, and the light of madness left the eyes of the few surviving cultists. After coming to their senses naked and covered in the blood of their friends, they fled from us in terror, disappearing in all directions into the darkness of the Wyldwir. We didn’t give chase. Mithra started to, but I ordered him back. When he was close enough, I pulled Mortis’s power from him, and he returned to his normal self.
Dozens of bodies littered the clearing, severed limbs and heads among them. Each of us was soaked in blood. Mithra sat and began to clean himself. I wished I could do the same.
“We can’t leave these bodies like this,” Ulmar said, wiping his blade clean. “They might rise as ghouls.”
“Let’s use the fire,” I said.
An hour and a lot of work later, we had a blazing pyre, the pile of corpses burning atop a bed of wood. The smell of burning flesh was unpleasant, reminding me too much of the smell of cooking pork for my liking. Once we were sure the fire was going to continue burning, we left it to return to our horses.
The forest was almost completely dark now, sunset sending weak red beams of light down through the canopy.
“Let’s make camp,” I said. “We can find Starlight Glade and Fred in the morning.”
“There’s a stream this way,” Anastasia said. “We can camp near it, wash some of this filth off of us.”
That seemed like a good idea to all of us and soon we’d found a nice flat spot of ground near the stream.
Ulmar made a fire while Anastasia and I took care of the horses. The stream wasn’t deep, but the cold water was perfect for washing the blood of our encounter off.
The campfire was a welcome spot of heat and warmth in the dark forest and we silently sat around it, eating hard tack and jerky. Renault had provided us with some fresh meat, but no one wanted to cook right then.
Anastasia pulled her saddlebag closer and reached into the open top for another piece of jerky. She cried out in surprise and jumped to her feet. With a smooth motion, she drew one of her swords. A two-foot-long lizard the same shade of nut brown as her saddlebags skittered out, something glittering in its mouth.
Mithra sprang up and darted forward, jaws closing with a clack where the swift lizard had been a half-second earlier.
Anastasia pointed her sword at the trunk of a nearby tree. “There it is! Damn thing has my favorite hairpin!”
A bolt of electricity sprang from her blade and struck the tree where the lizard had been a moment before. The trunk split where the lightning impacted, but I spotted the lizard on the next tree over, its eyes watching us. I met its eyes and suddenly knew.
“Hey, that’s a hellion!” I said and stood up. The lizard disappeared again, moving faster than I could track.
“I don’t care what it is,” Anastasia shouted. “I want my damn hairpin. Where did it go?”
“Let’s find the hellion; I want to bind it,” I said. “Mithra, can you track it?”
Mithra sniffed around and then slunk into the undergrowth.
“Come on, he’s got the trail,” I said, pushing after him. Anastasia followed.
“You two have fun chasing that lizard; I’ll stay here,” Ulmar said, not moving. “Yell if you need me.”
Anastasia and I dashed into the woods, following Mithra.
The lizard led us on a merry chase through the trees. It would appear for a moment on a branch or a trunk, Anastasia’s hairpin clutched in its mouth. We pushed after it, brambles tearing at us as the lizard led us through the thickest and thorniest brush. It seemed content to keep leading us through the forest for the rest of the night.
“William, we can’t keep chasing this thing,” Anastasia said as the lizard skipped ahead of us again. “I’m going to fry it so we can get back to camp.”
I felt that if I could get just a little closer to the lizard, I could try to bind it, but it wasn’t letting that happen. She was right, though—the thing was taunting us. It was fast enough that it could have lost us at any time, but it had chosen not to.
Was the lizard leading us somewhere? Maybe it was best not to continue pursuing the hellion, and we could always use the orb we’d retrieve from its corpse.
“Fine, kill it if you can,” I agreed.
We pushed through some particularly thorny and grasping bush into a small clearing. The lizard perched on a fallen log on the far side, the glittering hairpin still clutched in its jaws. A bolt of lightning arced out from Anastasia’s sword, the crackle of electricity and the bright flash disturbing the quiet peace of the forest clearing. It hit the spot where the lizard had been, leaving a burn scar. Anastasia let out a series of colorful curses. Then the log moved.
A massive triangular head rose from one end, eyes opening and looking at us. What had been a long root moved, becoming the tail of the enormous lizard. Its jaws opened, revealing triangular teeth. It hissed at us, and I recognized it as a hellion.
Hellion Lizard
, Rank D
Opening its jaws wider, it moved to attack.
Chapter 9
Mithra growled and flanked right as the monstrous lizard rose and twisted to face us. I just had time to pull my shield free and set it and then it charged.
With a flash of light Anastasia blurred past me, her two swords sparkling with electricity as she raked them down the beast’s right side, interrupting its charge. It turned and snapped at her fruitlessly—too slow.
I sprinted forward, Rime parallel to the ground. The massive lizard twisted back to face me just as I set my shield and invoked Ice Wave. The rushing wall of supernatural cold and ice slammed into the lizard, moving it slightly and leaving a rime of frost on its thick hide. It yowled in anger and slammed into me.
My shield protected me from immediate death, but the sheer mass of the thing still flung me across the clearing. Branches snapped and the air was pushed out of my lungs as I hit the trunk of a tree and my flight was suddenly stopped. I wheezed and pushed Rime’s power into Mithra as I struggled to my feet.
Mithra had been nipping at the lizard’s flanks—ineffectually—and I saw him stop as the power flooded into him.
Anastasia flashed in again, her twin blades sparkling as she slashed at the lizard. She jumped into the air as its tail lashed out and passed underneath her. She hung in the air for a second before falling like lightning, the points of her swords digging deeply into the thick flesh of the lizard’s tail. It wailed and howled in pain.
Mithra’s fur turned snow white and lengthened as he grew. The ground around him frosted over, waves of cold rolling off him. He opened ice blue eyes and arrowed into the fight, now as big as Ulmar’s pony.
Mithra, Blizzard Wolf, Rank: E
He clamped his jaws down on the scruff of the lizard’s neck and thick ice coated the flesh there. The lizard was enraged but not seriously hurt—it was still a lot larger than Mithra, even in his empowered form. It lashed him with its tail and bucked, trying to shake him free.
I ran and leapt, leading with Rime. The razor-sharp point speared the lizard’s shoulder, digging deep into the muscle. The massive triangular head came at me, jaws wide. I pulled my spear free and ducked. Massive teeth scraped the face of my shield as the strike missed. I knew that this was my chance and I lunged forward.
I placed my arms on the lizard’s head. The connection felt as strong as it could ever be, and I somehow knew what I needed to do here. When I had bound Mithra, it had been something different—it hadn’t been a contest of wills. Mithra had chosen me. This Hellion Lizard hadn’t. It was higher ranked than I was, and it didn’t want to submit to me. I had to dominate it.
The lizard’s will was strong, like a wall of stone. I pushed against it with my own and felt a tiny amount of flex. I redoubled my efforts and poured myself into our connection. Even the strongest wall will crumble under a determined enough assault, but some walls are stronger than others. This particular wall represented the will of a very large, powerful and angry lizard.
With a surge of power it shoved me back, rejecting my domination attempt and breaking our link. My head swum as the backlash washed over me, and I staggered.
The cavernous mouth of the lizard yawned wide and it came at me, meaning to swallow me whole. I saw Mithra, still worrying at the lizard’s neck but being pulled along for the ride. The ice was spreading and slowing the cold-blooded creature, but it would be too late.
I raised my shield and shoved it forward into the massive set of closing jaws. It wedged between pointed teeth on the top and bottom and flexed as the lizard tried to crush me between like I’d break open a sunflower seed.
I pushed the power of Mortis into my spear, screaming as the effort of using it once again tore at my soul. A miasma sprung up around the point of my spear, black and hungry for life. With a practiced and powerful thrust I buried the point deep in the soft flesh of the lizard’s mouth.
The lizard went insane, smashing its head against the ground and rolling. Mortis drank deeply from it, the power passing through and into me. I laughed maniacally as it attempted to dislodge the tiny irritant that was killing it. My shield creaked alarmingly, and the world spun. I set my feet into the inside of the beast’s mouth and lodged myself as firmly as I could.
It swung its head and thick branches nearly tore me free, snapping against my left arm and side. The pain was bright and sharp before the sweet flow of life from Mortis healed the damage. The ride seemed to last forever but was likely less than a minute. The thrashing began to slow and finally it stopped. I released Mortis’s power as the flow of life stopped.
With some effort I pulled my shield free of the dead lizard’s jaws. It was scratched on the top and bottom where the sharp teeth had been but was otherwise intact. I pulled Rime free and stepped out of the mouth, allowing the heavy jaws to sag closed.
Anastasia stood on the other side of the lizard, wiping her swords clean as she breathed heavily.
Mithra sat grooming himself, his long pink tongue a striking contrast as it licked the snow-white fur, a thick mist rolling off him. I was just about to pull Rime’s power out of him when I saw a movement. The tiny lizard was in the shadow of the large one’s tail, its tongue flicking out as it tasted the air. Anastasia’s hairpin was nowhere to be seen. I got the impression it couldn’t believe we had killed the big lizard. How many others had it lured back here to their deaths?
“Get the lizard, don’t kill it,” I silently ordered Mithra through our shared bond.
I hadn’t been sure that would work, but Mithra moved without hesitation, the wave of cold preceding him. The deep cold of the Blizzard Wolf’s aura must have slowed the small lizard just enough. Even still, he nearly got away. Just before it scampered away Mithra’s jaws closed on it and it stopped moving, accepting that death had finally caught up with it.
I rushed over, pulling the lizard free of Mithra’s jaws and holding it firmly in my right hand.
Hellion Lizard, Rank F
Although it was a much smaller and weaker version of the Rank D monster we had just defeated, I was sure this lizard would be useful. He was fast and stealthy, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d be like if I pushed some power into him. I reached out and touched him with my mind.
If his big brother had been a stone wall, this lizard’s will was a dry sponge. We had defeated his protector and captured him. He was at our mercy and it was a simple matter for me to dominate his will. I could feel the bond establish itself and then the tiny lizard was mine. I set him down on the ground away from Mithra’s frost aura.
I pulled Rime’s power out of Mithra and he returned to his normal form, lying down and resting. The lizard approached and his tongue darted out, tasting Mithra’s scent as my two hellions got to know each other. The lizard needed a name, and it only took a moment to come up with one.
“I’ll call you Snatcher,” I said, and I felt the beast acknowledge me through our link.
“Appropriate,” Anastasia said, having made her way around the lizard to stand nearby. “Now where did it put my hairpin?”
I gave Snatcher a mental order and it dashed off into the brush, returning a moment later with Anastasia’s hairpin clutched in its jaws. It dropped it at my feet and cocked its head to look at Anastasia.
She bent over and picked it up, tucking it in her pouch.
“Why did you bind that thing anyway?” Anastasia asked. “It’s tiny and weak. I don’t expect we’ll have much call for thievery.”
I was feeling bone weary, but she was right. I needed to see what form he’d take with some power in him. I pushed Gale’s power over our link, suffusing the tiny lizard.
Snatcher began to grow, his flesh becoming semi-transparent. His body was made of slowly swirling clouds, muted flashes of lightning hidden within. When he was roughly six feet long, he stopped growing and opened his eyes. I could see the storm within.
Tempest Lizard, Rank E
Snatcher couldn’t stay still with Gale’s power
filling him. He flitted around the clearing, too fast for the eye to follow. He’d been annoyingly quick before, but in his Tempest form he was literally as fast as the wind.
“Impressed now?” I asked, turning to Anastasia.
“I’m certainly impressed!” bellowed a deranged-sounding voice to our north, from deeper in the forest.
Pushing aside my weariness I pulled Rime free of the ground where I’d planted it. With my mental order Mithra and Snatcher rushed in the direction of the voice, Anastasia and I in pursuit.
Just beyond the clearing where we had fought the Hellion Lizard, the forest was filled with the remains of an ancient structure, a temple by the looks of it. The forest had nearly finished reclaiming this site, vines and moss covering nearly every surface as they slowly broke apart the stone.
In the center of it all a nude man jumped, his hands flailing as he attempted to capture one of the many multi-colored butterflies filling the glade. He was a handsome man with unkempt hair but a neatly braided beard. Nearby on a flat, moss covered stone lay a pile of bright, colorful clothing. Leaning against that stone was a gnarled staff, twisted fibers grasping a long white crystal at one end. It fairly shone with magical power.
Another Saprophyte, but this one was a powerful wizard. I snarled and felt for my power, ready to leap to the attack.
Chapter 10
The man turned to face us and smiled widely, a genuinely affectionate expression. His eyes were glassy and far away, a look I’d seen before on the faces of the Saprophytes, but there was no hint of Myca’s madness in these eyes.
“Fred,” Anastasia said, and I felt the tension drain from me.