“Get me an axe, now!”
Someone, possibly Leif, handed Ragnar a weapon. Kochel was too busy holding Xander by the neck and jumping out of the way before the hounds got them.
The horses neighed and stirred in a panic.
Leif perched up on Ragnar’s broad shoulders—which looked strange for two grown men—but the therianthrope leapt to impressive heights and landed on the other side between the dogs and horses.
“Leif, lead the horses away and get the rest!”
Ragnar crossed his arms before his chest. With his shield, he bashed one of the Mad Dogs away and slashed with his axe in a wide arc.
Dust and sand rose to the sky and shook the desert. Many of the hellhounds were cut down but the Ugallu was unfazed as he stormed right through the cloud and brought his spear down on Ragnar.
The shield connected with the spear’s tip and green thunder boomed, causing the dust clouds to combust in a chain of explosions around the two.
“There’s no way he survived this.” Xander watched in awe as the clouds of yellow, green and black billowed and expanded with Ragnar being thrown through the air and crashlanded next to Xander and his troops. Ragnar looked dusty but unharmed. “Of course, it doesn’t face you!”
Ragnar grinned at Xander. “Missed me, sonny?” His mood quickly soured at the sight of the Ugallu standing in the clearing, as unharmed as Ragnar but much angrier. “We better get out of here, now.”
“Afraid he will kill you?” Xander replied sarcastically but earned reprimanded looks from Kochel and Leif. Ragnar didn’t think much of it as he noticed his left shoulder bleeding.
He wasn’t as unharmed as they thought.
“I am, his hide is tough.”
Horns blew from behind them. The cavalry of the remaining Reiszer returned.
Ragnar and the Ugallu had a silent exchange. The hellhounds outnumbered them by 1:5 easily but they waited underneath the Ugallu’s presence for his command.
Ragnar grew too nervous around them and ordered a retreat which was a wise decision.
The desert burst into chaos as more and more Uridimmu hellhounds emerged from the dunes and tailed after them. Their numbers were growing uncontrollably until the Reiszer were outnumbered 1:10 and worse.
And that was accounting for the rest of their group back at the base.
Meanwhile, the Ugallu was quietly flying above their heads, directing the hellhounds like a general for a massive battle.
Their return back at the camp was not received well as they hurriedly took apart any interior parts they could to plug holes and strengthen their defences.
Ragnar shouted orders left and right to prepare as best as they could for an upcoming siege and was surprised to see the hellhounds waiting in the distance with the Ugallu observing them atop a dune.
He flicked with his tongue to lick his sharp teeth.
“This thing is getting on my nerves. Is it a monster? A demon? Is it sentient?” Ragnar had no answer, nor did Xander who kept himself hidden from the Ugallu’s prying eyes.
He didn’t know why but he felt as if the Ugallu was staring right through him—considering Xander as a tasty snack.
“Is he waiting for something? Someone?” Xander wondered. “Or is he contemplating his next move and scouting out our strength?”
“Whatever it is, he had the element of surprise to attack us,” Ragnar massaged his bandaged shoulder. “He was going easy on me.”
“Great, stuck between a rock and a hard place... what if he’s waiting for the Scorpion People?”
Ragnar grunted at the prospect. “Let’s hope not. With this amount of hellhounds, it’s a matter of time until he breaches our defences but if he gets the Scorpion People?”
“We will be massacred.”
“If we are lucky.” Ragnar grimaced. “Hopefully your friend has more luck than us–”
“Ragnar, quick!” Ragnar’s two therianthrope attendants came in. “Your daughter.”
Xander never saw a large and grown man like that charge and toss aside anyone he came into contact with. Except for his father who did it from reflex—and out of spite.
At the sick bay, Xander couldn’t believe his eyes how many Reizser were wounded. Bandaged limbs, bruised skin and lacerations that had yet to be treated but Xander also saw the typical fighting will of the Reiszer he got to know over the months.
Except for the poison victims who were writhing in pain and coughing up purple bile at the other side of the ruined sick bay.
One such victim was Jorunn who was thrashing violently in her sheets and convulsing. No one was approaching her or trying to stop her. When Ragnar put his hand on her he recoiled, his fingers steaming and blistering.
“Her temperature is beyond tolerable. If this continues her insides will melt,” informed one of the caretakers who was obviously not a doctor—or any of them.
They lacked the medical knowledge, healers or medicaments to treat her or anyone at all. Triage was a nightmare.
Xander drummed restlessly with his fingers. “We have to do something about her. Anything, or else…”
Jorunn’s veins darkened in colour, becoming a sick shade of purple. Ragnar bandaged his hands in cloth and clasped her hand in his. He tried to give her a sense of comfort before the cloth started to smoke and he had to pull away.
It looked like she didn’t even notice his gesture.
“I guess this is it,” Ragnar’s tone fell and placed his axe down next to Jorunn’s head. “Her time is running short.”
“Hey, don’t do anything rash,” Xander pleaded, nervously biting his fist. “My friend will return, I am sure of it. Just wait a bit longer.”
Ragnar’s eyes didn’t meet his, he kept them on Jorunn’s erratically rising and falling chest and how her fingers convulsed. “I haven’t told you the whole truth. My nephew was lucky to die before the poison set in. My son, however, not so much.”
Xander didn’t expect this revelation. “You had a son? Does this mean... Oh no.”
He knew where this story was going and Ragnar’s nod confirmed it. He wasn’t happy to end Jorunn’s life but he needed to, he wanted to spare her the misery.
“Six days and nights he held out. The poison scorched him from the inside and…” Ragnar shook the tears away. “I don’t want to have the same thing happen to her as well, so I will–”
“You should wait! Six days you said? Women can hold out for much longer,” Xander tried to appear serious but couldn’t help but chuckle. “Don’t they endure much more during childbirth? Should be an easy ride for her.”
The Reiszer glowered at Xander and he feared being cut down right where he stood but Ragnar simply dipped his head. He gripped his axe wordlessly and brought it closer to Jorunn before Xander interjected by grabbing Ragnar’s arm.
“Wait, what if he is coming back in time and with help in tow? We should wait, don’t do anything rush.”
Ragnar didn’t listen and gently pushed Xander’s hand away.
There was only so much Xander could do to convince him. He needed something, anything to push through before that man—that father—put down his own daughter.
“Use your brain, boy,” Xander heard the rough voice of his father in his head. Talking to him as he did with him all the time. “Imagine what you need and what you have. People are like Mana, controllable, just give them what they need and take the rest by force.”
“There is a way to save your daughter.”
A scowl formed on Ragnar’s face and for the first time, he barred with his teeth. His canines looked unnaturally large and sharp. “Don’t play with me, boy. There is nothing you can do.”
“Push further, don’t hold back. Never hold back, boy.”
“Oh, there is.” Xander feigned his confidence as he always did which made him look like a scheming villain. He didn’t mind, he needed to convince Ragnar, whatever the cost. “I cannot cure her but there is a method that might work to stabilise her temperature.”
It was a desperate gamble. One Ragnar didn’t appreciate with the current situation outside. Xander briefed him on the idea but Ragnar gritted his teeth.
“If what you say is true, how can we find one?”
“Oh, that should be easy.” Xander grinned and laced his hands together. “Are there any sinkholes nearby?”
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
—❂—
There was one room the Reiszer decided not to use. It wasn’t just the largest or the one with the sturdiest and most intact walls but it was also the one room with a massive gaping hole in its centre.
The distant rush of water filled their ears that came from all around the hole.
Channels were constructed underneath the walls and the shallow outside rivers flowed right through them. By Xander’s guess, it was once an open bathhouse back in the day and long overdue to be used again.
Cracks and holes littered the ceramic mosaic floor Xander walked on and just underneath it, he could feel a cold rush exhilarating his core.
“We are in luck, right below us is a cavern. Perfect for my little experiment.” Xander couldn’t hide his egocentric nature which he clearly inherited from his father. The sheer thrill to rejuvenate his magic made him giddy.
“And how are we supposed to get further down, smartass?” remarked Kochel with Leif biting his nails, waiting for an order by the increasingly agitated Ragnar to cut down Xander.
Ragnar jumped down the crumbled hole and more fissures formed underneath his feet. One strong push and it would all collapse.
“What now, boy?” Ragnar asked and Xander grinned.
“Easy,” Xander climbed down as well, “we–”
A shadow passed right above their heads. A rare cloud they thought but when Ragnar looked up he was lucky to bring his shield up before the Ugallu skewered him.
“What did we ever do to you, you mutated large cat!”
The Ugallu roared and spittle flew at Ragnar’s face. Flapping with his wings the Ugallu unleashed a torrent of wind and lightning, bringing the ruins all around them to a violent Harlem Shake.
“Ragnar, the hellhounds are attacking!”
“A bit busy here!” Ragnar tried to push the Ugallu away with his shield. “Defend the base while I deal with their leader!”
The Ugallu snapped with his eagle feet, clawed at Ragnar's arm and threw him against a nearby wall. The stone cracked and debris came crashing down, Xander had to dodge out of the way before he got crushed into a pancake.
Now he was truly stuck between a rock and a hard place as he couldn’t climb away with the Ugallu throwing a tantrum close by.
Xander needed a plan. Conjuring an orb of water in his palm he shot it at the Ugallu but it simply splashed against him. Unimpressed, the Ugallu snarled and shook his mane dry.
“Figures, damn desert,” Xander huffed and clutched his solar plexus. He was conserving his magic as much as he could but was reaching his limits. The cavern below was overflowing with water and cool air, both things which he desperately needed. “Ragnar, get us below!”
“I would like to, sonny. However,” Ragnar liberated himself from the debris and his eyes flashed brightly in a green light before they dimmed again. “I am out of stamina. Curse this desert, I need some cold water.”
With both paws on his spear, the Ugallu charged at Ragnar who deflected the tip and answered with his axe. He scuffed the hide of the beast but didn’t cut it.
“Aren’t you Reiszer experts in cutting things down? What is stopping you?”
“Aren’t you a water mage? What is stopping you from being useful?”
“Pah! Very funny.” Xander jumped back from the swinging spear. He was pressed into a corner and stuck in a hole with a Reiszer and a demon. The rushing of the waters was so close but so far away. “If only I could crack open the floor.”
“Show me what you got!”
ROOOOOAAAAAR
The Ugallu stomped the floor and spun his spear, unleashing another violent torrent of lightning that shook the ruins to its core.
“For a place built by the ancients, you are holding up way too well,” grumbled Xander and saw how the mosaic floor cracked open more and more under the stomping of the demon, resorting him to partially use his wings as to not get stuck between the ridges.
“Old man, keep the demon grounded. It has to keep on stomping!”
“Easier said than done.” Ragnar dove underneath the demon’s body and swung his axe against its back. A yowl escaped its maw, arched with his spear and cracked the ground further open with its feet. “You want him to crash through the floor? Will that work?”
“Not with that attitude. Keep it busy and make it Stamp on the Ground!”
—❂—
Have you ever stepped on a beast's foot to agitate it? No? Good for you and you are in luck since this is what Ragnar and Xander were doing just for you!
Whenever either of them stepped on the Ugallu’s talons and heard it scream they jumped out of the way and presented their own feet as if to say:
“Bet you can’t step on us.”
The taunt worked comedically well as the Ugallu stomped, got stepped on when it missed and then smashed angrily with the butt end of its spear on the floor with more cracks forming.
All that Xander and Ragnar had to do now was to keep on dodging or get their feet squashed—no pressure.
“This is the most dishonourable way I have ever fought,” complained Ragnar, stepped on the demon’s talons and then jumped back before he had his foot turned into mush.
“You get used to it,” grinned Xander, showed his white boot for the Ugallu and wiggled with his eyebrows mockingly. The bait worked a little too well as the Ugallu roared and hauled off to the sky.
Xander chose the wrong timing to be startled and stumble.
“You idiot, move!” Ragnar lunged for Xander and got him out of the way in time before the spear’s blunt end split the ground, unleashing another crackling storm mixed with sharp lightning.
More fissures marred the old ruins and the floor underneath them gave in, bringing the entire structure and most of the ruins into its long overdue collapse.
It was not a long fall but a steep one as Xander rolled down the slope and landed into shallow waters alongside all the other rubble that miraculously tumbled with but didn’t hit him.
Though Xander didn’t imagine it was due to Ragnar who stood with his shield guard to block off all the more enormous boulders from squashing them. His back had been hit by lightning and the leather armour peeled right off, showing Xander his bare and marked dark back.
It took Ragnar all of his strength to not let go and collapse where he stood.
Xander bit his lip from having Ragnar protect him like that. “Hey, demon, come down here!” Xander yelled from the top of his lungs and watched Ugallu descend down to them like an angel in disguise. He flapped with his upcast wings and gently landed with his taloned feet.
The Ugallu snarked at Xander and marched towards them victoriously but stopped when he heard Xander’s sudden laugh.
“What’s wrong? Getting the chills?” Xander spread out his arms and the Ugallu felt the temperature suddenly drop.
Xander was standing in the middle of a cavernous lake where water was rushing in from all sides, protecting them from the oppressing heat above.
With a flick of his hand, Xander let the waters churn and rise into two large orbs of icy water. “Feel the might from a Hellien Wizard!”
…
The first orb was shot over like a cannonball but it was big and slow so the Ugallu simply pierced it with his spear. Sadly, it didn’t account for Xander’s craftiness as the orb exploded into several dozen smaller ones and ruptured in a chain reaction of miniature explosions.
It threw the demon back and left it disorientated and drenched with aching muscles. Frost then started to cover his body and the Ugallu’s eyes widened as it burned his fur.
“Vitriolic Blight.”
Xander reached out with his arms and crossed them, the magic swirled all around him and a magic circle formed underneath him. The water formed tendrils and went with the flow of magic Xander created for it.
The flow widened and the tendrils followed suit. They quicked in their pace and bubbled violently with a white essence synthesising inside them.
“Onager Shelling.”
The tendrils snapped back and then forward, unleashing a barrage of cold cartridges exploding against the Ugallu and causing a jarring and pathetic roar of pain.
Xander’s magic shredded the Ugallu’s hide and disintegrated the nearby stone upon impact.
“Shall we crank it up a notch? I have more where this is coming from–”
The Ugallu released another, much louder and rumbling roar, shaking the cavern and startling Xander—his magic paralysed and fell apart. The lightning that accompanied the roar bounced and cut through the air, almost electrocuting Xander had he not risen the water and distilled it in time.
It was barely enough to stop the thunder and his barriers collapsed one by one.
The Ugallu picked up his spear and launched it at Xander who was too preoccupied to stop it. Xander was so close to seeing his life flashing by were it not for Ragnar to swing his axe and redirecting the spear then Xander would have become a Xander-On-A-Stick.
“Haaaa… this is refreshing,” Ragnar exhaled and the ridges alongside his neck and forearms pulsated. His breathing accelerated, his eyes glowed and his white teeth glimmered against the water.
Ragnar stood tall and the waters around his feet rippled.
“What is going on?” Xander wondered, not recognising the changes Ragnar’s body was performing with the strange blue marking appearing all around the ridges and his face. “A transformation?”
“Didn’t I tell you?” Ragnar glanced back with his predatory eyes and the wrinkles under his eyes became more pronounced—they were ridges and not signs of age. “I am not a human but a therianthrope. These waters are like a remedy for my body though you could manage the ph value a tad better.”
The Ugallu let out another roar and the spear unlodged itself from the wall and returned to its master. With another roar, he charged at Ragnar.
“Give me waves, sonny!”
As on command Xander did just so and created an enormous wave that reached up to the ceiling. Ragnar rode on it and the waters coalesced around his axe as he brought it down on the Ugallu and the wave crashed against him.
“Fear the shark and its waves, you oversized cat!”
Ragnar rode the wave like an aquatic beast, emerging in and out of it while disorientating the Ugallu and plunging his axe repeatedly against his hide.
Helplessly the Ugallu wailed against the barrage of Xander’s and Ragnar’s teamwork until he disappeared in moulds of light when Ragnar cut his throat, leaving behind nothing but a piece of its talon as a trophy.
“Amazing work, boy,” Ragnar picked up the talon and threw it over to Xander. “I am proud of you.”
Xander let himself plop down to the water and scratched his head with a bright smile. “Thanks, father–”
Too late did Xander notice his words before he spoke them. His face turned red and Ragnar’s was that of surprise.
“Forget I said that! It was a slip of the tongue!”
“You know,” Ragnar said, “we can talk about it. You know, have a father-son talk and-”
“No one can ever find out about it!”
“There’s no shame in seeing me as a father figure, it’s ok, I understand.”
“NO ONE CAN KNOW ABOUT THIS!” Xander cried out and Ragnar let out a hearty laugh.
With the disappearance of the Ugallu, the hellhounds vanished as well.
Thankfully, there were no casualties in the camp and the Reiszer erupted in a chorus of cheers and high spirits over the won battle. Strangely Xander found himself celebrating among them as well and he didn’t think of them as enemies at this moment but as comrades.
The uncovering of the cavern from the debris and with the new entrance they relocated part of their camp there since most of the ruins collapsed from the battle.
Ragnar’s attendants carried Jorunn over and Xander barked orders at the same time—making them regret that they let him stay.
Jorunn’s condition didn’t approve immediately but when Xander put a hand on her forehead it started to glow alongside the water with her skin returning to a much healthier and warmer colour.
No one understood what Xander was doing nor what the light was but Jorunn’s temperature stabilised.
“You could have done this the entire time?”
Xander shook his head. “I can control temperature—to some degree—but my magic has its limits. The poison is still there but I can at least keep her fever in check. Same way how I kept myself in check in the desert but its use was running short because of the constant scorching weather.”
Ragnar sat down beside them in the water and held Jorunn’s hand. He laughed, it was not scalding hot anymore. He couldn’t help but smile and pull Xander into a hug. “Thank you, son. Truly, thank you.”
Xander nodded and appreciated the first fatherly hug in forever—he didn’t complain when Ragnar called him his son.
The last time he was hugged like that was before his adoptive father had declared his own daughter dead and Xander his heir. A feat Xander was to blame and never forgot about.