The Monster's in the Details

by Ren Ryder

  Charging my staff with more wind mana, I pulled my arm back as I got in range and threw it like a spear at the struggling champion. I cursed as my throw went wide, sticking fast into a tree directly behind the undine. Refusing to slow my advance, I twisted my whole body into a spinning kick with all my weight and momentum behind it.

  My blow landed on the floating undine’s head, six feet off the ground. Without its feet rooted to the earth, the impact sent the undine flying backwards— straight into my staff. The undine impaled itself through the sternum, causing blood, bone, and viscera to go flying in every direction.

  I dismissed the undine to match up with Fin against the ogre. They were tottering towards each other like drunkards.

  Charging myself with attribute-less mana, I channeled power to reinforce my limbs and supercharged my fists. Leaping, I struck the back of the ogre’s skull from behind, rattling his brains and sending him reeling. My fist shattered from the force of the blow, and I let it fall to my side where it flopped around, useless.

  Minding the ogre’s swinging broadsword, I stepped inside his range and landed a series of roundhouse kicks to the back of his knees. Like a tree falling, the massive champion bellowed as he fell forward onto his knees. Right into a windup punch from Fin, with all the force of his failing body behind it.

  A loud crack echoed across the clearing as the ogre’s neck snapped.

  The ogre fell, boneless, to the earth, the impact sending dust and debris flying.

  A timeless quality stretched as the battleground fell silent, and Fin’s eyes met mine. Fin roared a battle-cry, so loud that it shook the trees. Red flames burst out of his body. Covered in blood and gore and overflowing with power, he looked like a berserker out of legend.

  I stepped back a few paces to create distance, and Fin dogged my step like a stalking wolf. “Fin, wait! I don’t want to fight you.”

  But Fin was beyond words now. My plea didn’t reach him.

  Bell tore over to my side with an I-told-you-so look wrote all over her face.

  I shook a finger at my sylph companion. “Don’t say it. Don’t you dare.”

  Bell held up her hands, but she bared her teeth in a gruesome smile.

  The look in Fin’s eyes was that of a wild beast, enraged beyond reason. He glowed with primordial power, an unstoppable rage monster that could snap my neck like a twig or crush me with a single blow.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Fin took another hasty step forward, then tripped over his own feet and face-planted into the ground. All the power he brought to bear dissipated like smoke in the wind, and the berserker’s light went out of his eyes.

  Looking at Fin now, it was a wonder he was even able to stand, let alone fight toe-to-toe with an ogre. He tried to push himself off the ground with his arms and legs, but fell back to the earth as his limbs gave out.

  Blood pooled around his fallen form. He had lost enough blood to kill a normal man, but Fin was no average human. The countless wounds he’d accumulated in his fight against six champions were taking their toll on him.

  “Fin?” I overcame my fear and put a wary hand on the man’s back.

  Fin spoke into the dirt, spitting up blood from his lips. “Kal. Leave me. Staying by my side is no good for you, you’ll only die alongside me.”

  I couldn’t help but feel guilty. Who knew whether his obvious association with me had led to his being targeted in the third trial?

  “I—” I began.

  “No, let me finish,” Fin interrupted me.

  Fin clenched his boulder-sized hands into fists. “I despise faeries. The fae think we humans are weak, pitiful things, not worthy to sit at the table of masters— our sole purpose is to serve them, sacrifice ourselves for their benefit or pledge our women as mere wombs for their spawn.

  “These trials are a farce, too simple to be considered a real challenge. And so I thought, why not humble these daemons? Robbing them of their faery king and assuming the title as a human, I could think of no greater shame.”

  Hacking up blood, Fin laughed. “My pride was my undoing. I aimed higher than my means, and so I failed. That’s all there is to it. Leave me here or you’ll share my fate. Go, before another champion comes to finish what they started.”

  I shared a look with Bell. She shook her head vehemently and pointed away, deeper into the Wildwood. Her position was clear. She’d followed me on my fool’s errand, but she wanted no part in it, so I wasn’t surprised to see her prioritize our victory over Fin’s survival.

  “Fin, we’ve got to get you up. Here, I’ll help you.” I tucked my good hand under one of his arms and pulled up with all my might.

  “LEAVE ME!” Fin roared, throwing off my help, which sent him crashing back to the earth. He rolled onto his back with what looked like the last of his energy, and stared up at the Dayside’s brilliant sky above.

  Fin started to fade, and his eyes glazed over. “I didn’t want to die here, in this Otherworld. I was so close to returning home to my family. So close,” Fin said, his words filled with bitter regret and shame. “The sky, it’s beautiful, but I hate it. I hate it down to the marrow of my bones.”

  “This guy’s nuttier than squirrel turds,” Bell said, as much at a loss as I was. “We should do what he says, Kal. If anyone happens upon us the way we are now, we’ll be picked off.”

  “I’m not leaving him here to die,” I ground out.

  “There’s nothing we can do. Look at him. Really look at him. He should be dead by now, the only thing keeping him clinging to life must be sheer, stubborn will.”

  I looked at Fin and found Bell was right, he was pale as death. Plus, I was without a weapon and would have to fight with one arm tied behind my back. Still, I wouldn’t leave Fin to die. No, I rejected that future. I wouldn’t let another person die in front of me that I had the power to save.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out a wilted moonflower. “C’mon big guy, eat up. This’ll do you good.”

  “Where did you get that?!” Bell screamed in my ear. “You knew the risks, why in the ever-loving world would you take one for yourself!”

  “But this isn’t for me,” I spoke in a calm, measured tone. “It’s for Fin, and he could use a miracle right about now.”

  I squeezed the moonflower’s petals over Fin’s gaping mouth and forced his jaw open and closed to make him swallow the drops of nectar.

  The moonflower started to do its work right away. Fin’s skin steamed and his myriad wounds began to close up before my eyes. The flower’s potent healing power wiped away his bloody battle like a slate wiped clean, leaving him whole and hale.

  Fin startled back awake. “What, what is this?”

  “It’s your life returning to you,” I told him.

  With marked weakness, Fin patted himself down, his fingers squelching against his blood-drenched clothes but finding nothing but superficial wounds. “What did you do? How is this possible?”

  Although the moonflower brought Fin back from the brink of death, that was it. He was a warrior without equal, but his body had been ravaged by his battle. Whatever fight was left in him, it was a shallow pool compared to the power he could bring to bear at his full strength.

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “Don’t sweat the details, alright? We need to get you out of here. If we get you outside the barrier, you can still resign and live to leave this Otherworld.”

  Fin wobbled upright, standing under his own power. “No. I’ll fight.”

  Frustration welled up inside me. “In your condition? Look at yourself! Come on, Fin. Don’t delude yourself. You’ll die. Remember what you’re fighting for— your family is waiting for you, remember?”

  Fin’s eyes glossed over and he seemed to be looking at something I couldn’t see, a distant memory. “I’ll concede this battle— if you promise to finish it for me.”

  I crunched my teeth together and rubbed my forehead. “Alright, fine, I promise! Now can we go?”

  If I kept this u
p, I was going to drown in all the promises I was making.

  “Yes.” Fin looked none-too-pleased with his situation, but he relented.

  “Wait, let me get my staff.”

  I ran over to the tree where the undine was still speared onto my staff. I wrapped the fingers of my left hand around the length of wood and pulled. With a sound of ripping wood and flesh, my staff broke free and I tripped backwards with it in my hands. Gone pale and lifeless, the blue-skinned undine flopped to the ground, dead.

  Fin tried to walk on his own, but he stumbled and almost fell. I gave him my good shoulder to lean on and the two of us weaved our way off the battlefield into the surrounding Wildwood. Relief flowed through me at leaving the bloody, ill-begotten place behind us.

  It was a long slog to the barrier’s edge. We weaved our way through trees and over piles of fallen leaves and twigs without care for the noise of our passage. If anyone happened upon us, we’d be mincemeat for sure.

  Both of us were tired and out of sorts from our respective battles, and my next fight already loomed in my mind’s eye. I pushed it out of my thoughts. Whether or not I came out the victor, I was doing something important, something impactful instead of just sowing death and misery in my wake.

  Murder becomes a habit.

  The words leapt unbidden into my mind.

  What was I becoming?

  Finally the barrier’s edge was in sight. It’s bubble-like quality glimmered in the rays of the Dayside’s sun, beckoning. With Fin’s strength flagging noticeably as his weight fell heavier and heavier onto me, my lungs were getting crushed. Covered in sweat and panting, I drew from my reserves of strength to get us across the last bit of distance.

  “You go on without me,” I said, gingerly extricating myself from the big guy as we reached the end of the road for him.

  Fin balled his hands into fists as he stared at the flimsy barrier separating him from a staggering loss.

  He wouldn’t look at me when he stepped through to the other side and said, “Win, Kal. You better win.”

  “You don’t have to tell me. I’ll do everything in my power to bring home a victory. I have unfinished business in the human realm too, you know.”

  “You do?” Fin asked.

  “You do?” Bell echoed, no doubt startled to hear me vocalize my intentions for the first time.

  I nodded, resolute. I wouldn’t run from my unfinished business with Ouroboros, or Sammie.

  “Find a nymph named Willow. She’s working on an exit plan for us, and she can help you, too.”

  “That no-good nymph? Are you serious, Kal?!” Bell asked.

  “She’ll keep her word,” I said, confident Willow would come through in the end.

  “You don’t know that!” Bell argued.

  “Find Willow,” I repeated to Fin, ignoring Bell’s denial as I did my best to give him a clear description of what she looked like.

  Holding his side and his chest heaving, Fin Macool locked eyes with me one last time before stumbling away into the forest, defeated.

  I turned back around to face the arena carved out by Oberon’s barrier. I was going to finish what I started and make everyone waiting for me to fail eat dirt.

  My shattered hand had healed somewhat, but it felt weird. Still, I could use it. At the very least, I wouldn’t have to fight the rest of the trial with one hand tied behind my back.

  “Bell?” I asked.

  “Yes Kal?” Bell replied in a long-suffering tone. “What is it now? Another dumb plan? How about we just throw away everything we’ve worked for and resign alongside Fin while we’re at it?”

  “Okay, I deserved that,” I cleared my throat. “But no, that’s not it, actually. I’ll say it once, and I’ll say it again. Thank you. Thanks for always sticking by me, Bell.”

  Bell turned her head away from me and mumbled something under her breath.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “Nothing. It was nothing, okay!” Bell compensated for her earlier quiet with yelling. “Just forget I said anything.”

  “Okay then.”

  “With two champions remaining, the barrier will now shrink by margins until such a time where the two final champions paths intersect. And so the third trial moves towards its inevitable conclusion. Elimination,” Oberon said, his words seeming packed with hidden meaning.

  I didn’t like the feeling of being corralled then confined at Oberon’s say-so. As if he didn’t have enough control over these trials already. No doubt he expected nothing short of my death.

  Would he allow any other outcome?

  “Bell, we’ve gotta move!"

  “Right behind you. Go!”

  The barrier shrunk on Oberon’s command and I had to skitter out of the way before I disqualified myself. I sprinted to keep ahead of the fast closing barrier. It moved with such frightening speed I had to cycle more power into my mana channels and bleed off power to renew my mana skin just to avoid disqualification.

  I imagined Oberon laughing at my expense, watching me scurry to safety like a spooked hare.

  Growling, I sped through the Wildwood, making long jumps over any obstacles in my path. Bell flew alongside me, keeping easy pace next to me. I tried to keep one eye out for danger, but I had the distinct feeling that my opponent was waiting for me at the central ring of the barrier.

  I emerged into a small clearing, a hundred feet wide at any point. Looking up, I confirmed I was as central as I was going to get. But I didn’t see any champion lurking in ambush, or waiting for my arrival like I’d expected. The barrier stopped shrinking to confine Bell and I in the clearing, though, so he had to be nearby.

  A figure detached itself from the shadows of some low-hanging branches, strolling into the clearing like the whole trial was a leisure walk for him.

  I’d been expecting someone, I dunno, bigger.

  I thought I’d face a massive troll or something, not a lone figure comparable in size to myself. He had a thin hand-and-a-half sword strapped to one side of his waist and a wand holstered on the other. For armor, he wore nothing but thick fur garments to keep out the cold.

  I noticed his body was unscarred, as if he’d just stepped out of a picture book.

  “Ah, so you are all that’s left. A pity that I won’t be tasked with a real challenge. Alas, my path to kingship continues to be paved with bitter disappointments.”

  I tried not to hate him after hearing the first words that came out of his mouth, I really did.

  Bell flew into a rage. “What did you say?!”

  “Ah, how cute. You’ve enslaved a sylph. No wonder you’ve made it this far. If you were expecting to ride her coattails to victory, I have news for you— her paltry magics are nothing to me.”

  “I’m no slave! We’re partners! Hear me, partners!” Bell screamed. “Ooh, this guy’s on my last nerve.”

  “Well, do excuse my presumption. Dear me, I have forgotten to introduce myself. I’m Ailill mac Máta, the next Seven Year King. The pleasure’s all mine.”

  I mashed my teeth together before responding. “Kal, and that hasn’t been decided yet.”

  Ailill looked me up and down. “Ah, well met, Kal. You’ve shown yourself to be quite industrious, making it so far despite your obvious defects.”

  “Defects?” I asked.

  “Well, you rarely see halflings overcome the smallest of hurdles, let alone the ones you must have to make it here. I would go so far as to say that you have defied the natural order.”

  I found myself growing angrier the longer our conversation dragged on. “Oh, and what is this natural order you speak of?”

  “Well, excuse my language, that halfling bottom-feeding scum like you never rise above their station, of course.”

  “I see. So that’s how it is,” I said.

  “That’s how it is,” Ailill agreed.

  Bell rose to my defense, saying, “Kal is two times the man you are!”

  “Surely you jest,” Ailill laughed, a melodious sound
that would have been music to my ears coming from a less irritating source.

  Ailill had the same elegant curling horns growing out of his head that Oberon had. He had the same shitty personality, too. I sensed an outpouring of power from the man that put him in a class above any of the other champions I’d come across thus far. He was on a whole other level.

  Ailill’s oppressive mana filled the clearing and pressed down on my shoulders as physical force.

  “Well, we’ve had our introductions. What do you say we put your abilities to the test, shall we?” Ailill said, as if this was all a game for his own amusement.

  “You know what, let’s do that,” I agreed, letting my anger drive me.

  I took up a fighting stance and held my staff out in front of me in both hands, gripping it so hard that my knuckles turned white.

  Ailill surrounded himself in a glowing black-and-green aura. He formed a dense shield around his body with the excess of mana he summoned for the purpose of testing me. I hadn’t even tried yet, but the shield was so potent and powerful that I started to question whether any of my attacks would be able to pierce it.

  Ailill clapped and said, “Well, hop to it. I can only spend so much time on this before I move on to claim my prize, my rightful place above my lessers.”

  “Let’s shut that big mouth of his,” Bell said, brimming over with spite.

  I nodded my agreement. “You know what? Let’s.”

  Drawing off my source like a man dying of thirst, I teased out the greatest influx of power I’d ever commanded. I juggled the huge mass of power like a novice, trying to prod it into shape so it didn’t all come crashing down on me. Mana steamed off my body as I fought to capture as much power as possible and turn it to my own ends.

  “Come now, I don’t have all day,” Ailill yawned as he watched and waited.

  Ailill’s demeanor was so off-putting that I started to second-guess myself. My stomach roiled.

  Why doesn’t he attack? Is he really that confident?

  I started walking towards the unflappable champion, keeping my stance and shuffling forward with care.