Despite their nonchalant attitude toward battle, Nick knew that the two people flying with him were the best of the best the city had to offer, and with them, he stood a chance of succeeding.
“There!” Lassandra called out as she pointed ahead at the large crystal floating in the air, pulsing with energy beside the massive fifteen-foot-tall monster.
“How you wanna fight the walking unskinned rug?” Rob asked as Lassandra broke away from his side and circled around to the back of the monster on her staff as Rob’s pegasus began flying right at it.
“Wren’ll be here soon, so I say we run the old tank and spank playbook,” Lassandra replied, raising her wand. “You tank; I spank.”
“Ha! You’re not going to beat the disposable meat shield allegations Bob keeps lobbing at you with that attitude,” Rob snarked back, but he didn’t argue with the plan. “Alright buff boy, drop when we get close and boost us up. We’ll take it from here, but don’t you dare forget who won the battle when it’s over.”
“Fine,” Nick replied as he looked back to see Wren in tow on her broom, catching up to them quickly. He didn’t care who got the credit as long as people stopped dying. That was the only thing that mattered to him as he stared at their foe.
The enemy was a large demonic bear with the same icy-rock fur bristling he’d seen on many of the commanders, but this time, the fur armor was dyed brownish red like it’d been painted with runes using the blood of another monster, the pattern pulsing into life as Nick neared.
“Ha, how predictable you furless meatbags are,” the bear laughed as Rob swooped in for an attack. The moment they had gotten close, the bear stomped on one of the runes by his feet, a giant impermeable bubble of mana erecting itself around the area, Wren just barely made it inside the bubble before it closed behind her, blocking out the chaotic noise of the battlefield below.
“Don’t growl at me!” Rob yelled, interrupting whatever villain monologue the bear had planned as he flew straight at the monster. While the pegasus was diving, Nick dismounted from the beast, landing on the ground with a grunt. He stood up just in time to watch the swordsman’s blade flashing as he struck the ursine’s side. The glowing sword carved through a layer of the blood-coated fur, but it did little more than make a scratch, barely causing the bear to flinch.
Without warning, Merzifonlu's fur began to shimmer and harden in response, ice crystals sprouting from his body like deadly spikes and launching through the air in all directions.
“Dodge if you can!” Lassandra's voice rang out as a shimmering barrier enveloped Nick and his companions, slowing the large shards of ice as they broke on the barrier skill. Rob’s horse was grazed by a shard, and Nick was nearly hit but managed to duck and cover at the last second—a second he wouldn’t have had without the magical barrier.
“Thanks, Lassandra!” Nick called out, pulling his spear from his inventory as he got to his feet.
“Buff boy, where’s my boost?!” Rob yelled in frustration as if he was blaming Nick for being unable to kill the monster in a single slash. He circled around, preparing for another attack.
“Let’s kill the beast!” Nick shouted and activated his Cloak of Madness yet again as he charged straight at the monster, his spear wreathed in holy flame. He thrust the burning weapon at the monster’s chest, feeling a surge of hope as he saw the bear take a step back in response to his attack.
But no sooner had the bear shifted moved than it swung its paw around, nearly catching Nick in a deadly embrace. Nick had to roll away, his heart pounding as he felt the strong force of the wind from the attack pushing him aside like he was a fly the bear was just trying to swat.
“Of course you barbaric, hairless cave monkeys wouldn’t even do introductions before your deaths,” the ursine taunted as he deflected Rob’s second attack with one of his claws. “The fact that you uncultured, two-legged swine thought you had the authority, right, and dignity to take the lives of my brothers, Pasha and Abaza, is the height of an arrogance I, Merzifonlu, aim to correct here and now.”
“I’m coming in hot!!” Wren shouted as she soared through the air, a dozen tiny balls of fire circling around her that, upon her declaration, sped up, shooting out and striking the same spot on the back of Merzifonlu’s head, exploding in such rapid succession.
Lassandra, not to be outdone by the fire mage, finished casting her own assault as she ripped the snow from off the ground around her, condensing, forming, and shaping it into two heavy ice spears that she launched at the bear.
The large shards of ice dug several inches into Merzifonlu's massive form, but the bear seemed more annoyed than injured.
Wren then followed up her initial attack with a stream of fire from an outstretched hand. The blazing torrent had more effect as the steady flame concentrated on the monster melted the ice armor the ursine commander had created.
Merzifonlu snapped one of the ice shards from its body and threw it at the flying fire mage, who had to stop her attack to dodge the projectile. She desperately banked right, barely dodging a lethal strike to the center of her chest as her shoulder still got hit. The shard tore through her armor like paper as she was sent spinning backwards, her good hand clinging to her broom to keep control, even as blood fell in drops from her injured shoulder.
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“You bastard!” Rob screamed, taking his horse into a dive, the blade of his sword elongating as he extended the aura around it. With the force of a falling pegasus behind the blow, Rob slashed at the ursine leader. The blade cut deeper this time, reaching the rocky fur beneath the icy armor, but Rob still failed to make the monster bleed.
"Is this the best you can muster?" Merzifonlu taunted, shrugging off another of Rob's attacks, his ice armor already reforming to protect him. "Pathetic."
Before either horse or rider could escape, Merzifonlu's massive paw closed around Rob's sword, and a bone-chilling crack echoed across the battlefield as the gleaming blade shattered like glass. Rob's eyes widened in disbelief as the shards of his own blade cut into him.
Merzifonlu’s other paw came down just as quickly, shearing through one of the mount’s wings and catching Rob’s leg. The bleeding pegasus squealed in pain as it was knocked to the ground, where it hit hard and collapsed in a crumpled heap, a huge gash visible on its upper leg.
"No!" Nick cried out, watching helplessly as Rob was sent flying.
Wren screamed in anger, “You’ll pay for that!” and dove down, a giant glowing fireball forming in her hands as she started to chant out the words to a spell, each syllable being filled with her anger, the fireball brightening and condensing.
Lassandra's voice rang out, tinged with desperation. "Rob! Hold on!"
A crystalline dome materialized around Rob's plummeting form, but Merzifonlu's claws tore through it as if it were paper. The bear's laughter boomed across the mountain, a sound that chilled Nick to his core.
A moment before Wren could finish her spell and launch her fireball, Merzifonlu spun as if he’d been waiting for the moment. He leapt, his great claws outstretched as he jumped higher than Nick would have ever expected from a creature of his size. Merzifonlu’s claws cut right through Wren’s broom, nearly taking her out, but missing her body by inches.
The broom swerved mid-air. Wren screamed as she abandoned her spell and desperately tried to regain control of what remained of her broom, trying to get the small piece that was left to work until she crashed into the barrier that the enemy had erected and fell to the snow-covered earth with a thud.
"Your pathetic magic cannot save him, little mage," Merzifonlu taunted, kicking the downed pegasus in front of him as he landed back on the ground and turned, advancing on Rob's prone form.
Lassandra's face contorted with rage. "We'll see about that!" She unleashed a flurry of spells: ice walls, spiked barriers, and even a swirling vortex of frost—but nothing stopped Merzifonlu.
Nick's mind raced. He had to do something to save Rob. But as he prepared to charge, a glint caught his eye. The crystal—the cause of their dead comms and the Black Witch's weakened state—stood unguarded.
It was the first time since the fight began that the crystal’s guardian had moved far enough away from it that Nick actually thought he might be able to reach it before the ursine commander could react, but he knew going for it would mean leaving Rob to die.
Unable to abandon his companion, Nick yelled out, trying to get the ursine’s attention as he channeled every ounce of mana he had left into a single spell. “It ends here!”
The air crackled with energy as he, using his spear as a conduit for his spell, threw the weapon at the monstrosity.
“Die . . .” Wren’s voice croaked out as she rallied just enough to unleash every ounce of fire magic she possessed to weaken the monster’s armor against Nick’s all-in attack before she passed out again.
The air crackled from Nick’s spell, a blinding white flame erupting from the heavens upon the spear’s impact, engulfing Merzifonlu in its searing embrace. The bear's roar of surprise quickly turned to one of pain as the holy flame seared through his strained defenses.
"Impossible!" Merzifonlu bellowed, his voice barely audible over the roar of the flames.
Nick watched the fifteen-foot-tall bear's rocky and icy protection begin to melt away, revealing a patch of vulnerable flesh beneath.
Lassandra, her eyes blazing with fury, seized the opportunity. “Pathetic this, pathetic that” she snarled. “How ‘bout you die for this pathetic mage!
Lassandra quickly performed a complex series of gestures and then shot a shard of ice from her hand with the power of a ballista bolt. The shard punched through the creature’s exposed flesh, and then, with a final flick of the wrist from Lassandra, millions of razor-sharp ice spikes erupted from Merzifonlu’s body, breaking through the gaps in the quickly disappearing armored hide.
The mountain shook with Merzifonlu's agonized howl. Nick stumbled, nearly losing his footing. "Lassandra," he gasped, "that was—"
"A cold hearted move?” she finished, her voice cold. "He threatened my friend. No one does that and walks away.”
“I was just going to say ‘awesome,’” Nick muttered as he, barely holding on to consciousness, started to trudge over to the crystal.
Each step was a monumental effort. His vision swam, the aftermath of channeling every ounce of his mana into that final, devastating attack. The crystal stood before him, pulsing with an eerie, cold light.
Nick's hand slammed against the top of the crystal as he finally reached his goal.
He could feel a connection with someone else, a vulpe. A powerful vulpe.
“Stop what you’re doing! You don’t understand!” the creature shrieked in his mind and then sent some kind of energy through the crystal at Nick.
An icy jolt surged through him, nearly stopping his heart. Fighting through the pain, he focused every ounce of his willpower on severing the connection he could feel pulsing beneath his palm.
"No!" the vulpe howled in his mind, its voice tinged with panic.
The crystal's light flickered and then began to dim. Nick could feel the energy retreating, like a tide pulling back from the shore.
With all the strength and willpower left in his exhausted body, Nick raised his spear and brought it crashing down on the crystal. It shattered with a sound like a thousand breaking mirrors.
The moment the crystal was destroyed, Nick could hear the Black Witch triumphant exclaim in his mind, “Yes! Yes! You did it! With this, the battle is won!”
From where Nick stood on the mountain ridge he could see the entire battlefield, including the rift opening up in the center of the city and soldiers pouring out as a dark and ominous laughter let loose across the battlefield. In an instant, the armies of the witch had been reinforced, and her magic had been set free upon the world, covering the icy terrain with a harrowing laugh, the effects of which were instantaneous. The horde of beasts began to turn on each other, and all but the stronger, tougher ones like the adult vulpe or the largest of the dire wolves and harpies began to either kill one another or die on the spot, like their souls had been torn from their still-intact bodies.