Their movements were crooked and janky. Alvec rushed in, slinging fire from his hands, scorching two of the ones swarming Naya. A closer look told him all he needed to know about the creatures. They were zombie-esque, but not zombies. It would be more accurate to say that they were corpses being piloted by the styxweed itself. No doubt being manipulated by the white robbed devil hanging out towards the back of the combat. They were much closer to a marionette than a zombie, really. “Bait or Mavec, see if you can take down the white robed devil,” Alvec shouted back to them. None of the pirates were using weapons at this point. They attacked with their bare hands.
They swung at Naya, and as their fists approached her, the ghost-white vines lunged for her, too. She narrowly dodged clear of the first one, inching just outside of its range. She wasn’t so lucky with the second strike. The vines coiled around her arm and attempted to wedge itself into her wounds. She screamed out in pain as she dropped her sword and clawed at the vine, tearing into it as best she could. Illaria stepped forward and cleanly slashed through the fragile tendril of the root. The one wrapped around Naya quickly went limp, no longer connected to the central root.
“Fuck! These things are gross and awful.” Naya exclaimed.
“They grow towards blood wasn’t an exaggeration,” Mavec replied. Throwing another bolt of lightning down the line, striking the devil square in the chest. Sarbie ran to the center of the battlefield and sent out another pulse of positive energy. If these roots targeted blood, she’d cut down on the number of targets by healing her friend's wounds. Everyone but Naya looked fairly good after a single pulse of healing energy.
Bait focused his attention on the worm again. Peppering it with bullets as fast as his little hands could reload his large musket. “Big Prick Go DIE!” He shouted as he imagined the abuses his people had suffered with such threats as this at their back. Bait not know every member of Black Powder clan. Dey seemed more in number and less at the same time. How many had big prick eaten? Too many, he fear. He vowed a bullet for each goblin and screamed as his musket flared to life, roaring with him. Bait wasn’t alone in fighting the worm. Below where Bait was shooting, Echo had sunk his fangs deep into the creature. While he couldn’t seem to knock it to the ground, he managed to keep the creature in place, an easy target for the small goblins attacks. Echo’s tail wagged; he knew just how smart and good he was to be doing this. He hated leaving his partner Naya alone, but she had good friends surrounding her. They protect, so Echo attacks.
Illaria smirked and dashed forward, baiting the three Styxweed puppets into attacking her. With a brilliant flash of her blade, she landed three good hits on them as she broke past them and made her charge toward the devil in white robes. He, too, took the bait, swinging with his staff at her. She knocked it aside, and her blade flared with the golden red light as she sliced into him. The fight was still far from over, but she could now put pressure on this asshole.
Naya did her best to launch into a different set of attacks. With one sword lying on the damp ground, she opted for something different. She stepped back away from the vine puppets, and chanted to the spirits of the sky, bringing down a bolt of lightning onto one of them.
The devil she had decapitated rushed forward, powering past her and leaping at Mavec. The two forms collided, and Mavec was knocked to the ground. The devil began to rain blows down on Mavec, who threw his arms up to protect his head. Piquora leaped onto the devil's back and began to gnaw at the vines connecting its head back to its body. Sarbie stepped backward and focused her energy. She wasn’t the most adept spell caster nor the most adept crossbowman; in many ways, she felt overwhelmingly average to be standing here in the middle of this fight. This was far above what she had ever suspected she might be involved in. She pulled her power around her and wrapped Mavec in golden light. The devil swung at him again, and the force held his fist just above his target. Its head rotated unnaturally, spinning several times before settling its dead-eyed gaze on Sarbie.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Her blood ran cold as she stumbled backward, almost losing her grasp on the spell. The devil stood up from Mavec and rushed towards her. Something brushed against her hand, and she nearly jumped. Her heart hammered as she looked down to find Rem pushing a scroll into her hands. She grabbed it and unfurled it. Rem quickly climbed her until he gracefully rested on her shoulders. He yipped and growled in the devil's general direction, and the ink on the page burned away at the sound of his voice. A spray of shards of diamond blasted out from the scroll at the Devil. Slicing through the vines and flesh, stripping away large portions of it. Piquora, still on the devil's back, sunk its teeth in even further, and with a snap, the vines broke, and both sections of the creature fell to the ground. Rem yipped excitedly in Sarbie’s ears as she raised her hand to pet him. “Thank you, but how in Kushang’s name can you do that?”
“Familiars have a strong magical connection with their master. The skills they have honed can be used by a familiar. Not all that surprising, really,” Mavec said as he dusted himself off and stood up again.
Alvec surged in to help Naya, tracing fire runes in the air; he arced a bolt through all three of them. Coupled with another few good swings and another lightning bolt, it was just the worm and the white devil up. Bait’s gun rang out repeatedly, and the worm thundered to the ground again, its body too physically injured for the Styxweed to be able to puppet it any further. Illaria dueled the devil in white robes, and within moments, free from distractions, the devil went down to one knee. It grimaced and attempted to teleport away. Illaria’s blade was swift and true, swiping what little life remained in him before his spell could take full effect. He fell into the water-logged ground and lay still.
The group gathered around and quickly healed up. In terms of power, it was already worrying how many resources they had spent. The last combat had been exhausting, draining Alvec's magic an alarming amount. At this rate, he’d be swinging a dagger by the time he reached Crowley. There was nothing to be done about it, though. He’d have to use every last thing he could to provide every edge.
Naya was ready to do her part. She spoke to the spirits again, calling for their aid. Two dire badgers heeded her call emerging from behind cover. They immediately began digging around the root. “Alright, Echo, it's time,” Naya uttered the command word, and Echo enlarged himself. “Dig, boy! Dig!” She shouted to him. He ran to the root and dug with wild abandon. They only had one minute total to make use of Echo’s huge form, so everyone gathered up to help uproot it. After about thirty seconds of digging, Naya called for him to bite and tug. While Echo did the majority of the work, Naya, Alvec, Sarbie, and Mavec each grabbed onto the root and pulled as well. Between huge Echo, two dire badgers, and the four people struggling to help their wolf, the root snapped and eventually broke free, sending the four humans toppling onto the wet earth. A burst of magical energies washed over the hill. Alvec cursed; they would undoubtedly know what had happened now, but it wasn’t all bad. He felt his spent spells reinvigorate. He got off the ground and offered his hand to Sarbie. Naya and Mavec scrambled up seconds later.
“Alright now, we’ve saved the empire, but we still have to find my parents and steal a boat, so let's not be wasting any moonlight,” Illaria said as she moved toward the pirate base.
“If we don’t want to be caught in the crossfire, we really do need to move,” Mavec said as he followed close behind Illaria.