Vespertilia sat herself down with a groan of frustration leaving her throat. Oh, how infuriating this whole ordeal was to her. She thought the blood she delivered was of an exquisitely good quality, but after tasting that Daeman's life essence, it all tasted akin to watered down gutter swill by comparison. She let out an annoyed growl at the thought of that hag of a Tuskir woman, stopping her puppet from acquiring that delicious pink morsel she found.
He eyes wandered at the still light up blue candles on her table, pondering her next move. "The Flying Guillotines could be here at any moment..." She groaned, glaring the the bleeding dead pairs of eyes across part of her forearms.
"Well... this operation has gone to hell and back... Might as well put all my eggs in one basket and see where that gets me. The plans have changed, drastically." She said more for herself, laying openly her thoughts to better aid her in making a sound decision.
She swallowed the spit building in-between her jaws from the thoughts of consuming that blood again and she began reaching out to the various flames and plucking them with her bare fingers, bringing them all together on one candle.
While chanting and going on with these gentle motions, she stopped, a slight confusion in her actual eyes, as she noticed one of the flames being blue no longer, instead burning a normal orange, the wax dripping from the top, dripping as a bloody red. "Ugh-... one broke free... damned bloody mutts." She spat out in a venomous tone.
The shaman continued her ritual, plucking the remaining blue flames and seemingly bringing them on to one candle, swelling the blue flicker it had to a small azure inferno of a light. Once done, she grinned content, proud even, as a thought of gloating appeared on the surface of her thoughts. 'Let's see you get out of my grasp after this move, my little morsel. Fufufu~'
++++
Michael gasped for air with relief as he felt the claws of the Hay-yen unhinge from his wounds, the stinging throbbing pain in his chest making him wince due to either part of his clavicle being bruised or broken. It was hard to tell, especially with all the adrenaline coursing through his system and the fact he'd never broken a bone before.
He slid down the side of the bloody ice spike on which his attacker's mangled body was still being impaled on. The young man groaned once as he landed dully on the firm dirt, shaking his bones lightly from head to toe.
"Ah! H-ho... f-fuck... t-that stings..." he said wincing with tears in his eyes and then glaring at his wounded shoulders and chest as if they have purposefully inflicted that pain on him.
"I would imagine so." Urla replied while approaching. Once near the young man she kneeled by his side where he sat and she began muttering words under her breath, the same teal like colored energy swirling in her eyes as when Michael tried healing. Unlike that time though, the Tuskir elder managed to complete her casting successfully, the wounds on Michael closing up slowly.
"WHOA- Ah! That's how that feels?! I thought it would be- ho-.... painless..." He replied as he let out a cough to clear the choking in his throat cause by the pain her currently felt. He could feel his clavicle set and crack back into place, the pain easing only after the bone seemed to be set and restored. The gashes on his skin didn't magically bind, but instead seemed to go through the natural process at an accelerated rate.
"It is painless if you are unconscious." Urla stated in a matter of fact way, as she focused on her spell, the old boar woman's breathing slowly turning ragged.
The young man nodded as if trying to say 'Yeah, no shit.' The pain of the healing process making his usual manners to be found lacking even in thought. The true reason for his lack of words can be found elsewhere though. His tired eyes trailed upon the giant visage of the tree that now stood proudly in their courtyard. Michael's heart ached recalling the recent events. The fighting managed to distract his mind from contemplating the reality of his decisions for too long.
"I am sorry you had to go through that." Urla said without a prompt for talking.
"A-about?" Michael asked confused by the sudden apology.
Urla's stoic gaze looked at him with a hint of saddened pity leaking from behind her usual mask, the type you have for a child who lost a close one and they blame themselves for it. "I am versed in healing, Michael. After saving you from your kidnapper, I immediately looked around for Spek. I didn't see him, but I saw a tree instead. It doesn't take a scholar to put things together, young one. Especially not after we saw how mana behaves in your hands."
"I didn't mean to... I... he was about to breath his last breath and you were nowhere in sight... I got desperate." Michael said, his words choking him as he tried to let them out.
"We shall speak of this once the fighting is over. Get up now. We-..." Urla grew silent as her ears twitched. She seemed to listen to the surroundings around them. 'The field went quiet... this can't bode well.'
Before she could even vocalize her worries, a thundering booming cackle came from the direction of the village gate, which sent Urla back up her feet and Michael to scramble to regain his own footing.
"We must hurry. There is something wrong happening." The old sow said as she began to give a quick paced limping walk in the direction of the noise, breathing decently labored.
"You can barely move and I am not doing much better." Michael said catching up, once more trying to figure out a solution. A spark of an idea glistened in his eyes as he walked quickly besides Urla. "The spell that makes you go fast? Can you only put it on the ground or on a person as well?!"
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"Aye, it can be casted individually as well, but it will spend more of my mana which I have little to spare left." The elder replied as she recognized what the human wanted.
"Then use mine. You said it will work and yes I know the dangers of overdoing it, I remember and no I don't think there's an alternative that is safer. I am not arguing about this." He continued stopping her with a solid, but not harsh, tug on the shoulder.
Urla paused a mere moment as she lifted her staff. "Sigh... Gods, ye almost sound like I used to when I was younger. Drop the effects if you notice your skin turning grey and flaking or you will end up crippling yourself." The old Tuskir then chanted, eyes glowing a pastel green, as a wind like effect began to circle around Michael, slowly subsiding visually and becoming fainter as an constant gentle air flow around him.
"Yeah, I know. I got nothing else as far as ideas go so I am using any shitty trick I can think of. I told ya, sadly you didn't get one of the most brilliant minds of my kind." Michael replied as he could feel the breeze around him, his eyes glowing a more intense green, combining with his brown eyes to make them into a vortex of hazel and emerald.
"Perhaps, but you shouldn't talk down to yourself so much. You aren't as incompetent as you may imagine yourself." She said finishing the spell with a twirl of her staff a hint of a smile escaping her expression.
"Thank you. Catch your breath and come as quick as you can, but make sure you can still aid us. Hell, I'm sure we'll need it." The young human said with a small smile of his own and a nod as he then took off in a mad sprint, his movements light and quickly paced, as if he was stepping on air instead of ground.
++++
Runhar has been holding down the front gates together with Rok, who could finally move after a bit of rest, although the younger Tuskir was rather slow after his injury. Using Woh as a messenger, he even got Zurra to come and assist since her section and Brekda's has been cleared, as they had already dealt with the few mutts who tried to sneak past them. The barbed wire has proven quite effective at slowing down the Dire Hay-yens just enough to get spotted.
The trio slowly started to see their enemy slow down and even retreat. With this retreat by the Hay-yen, they have found a moment of alert respite to catch their breaths.
"They are retreating. We must be winnin'!" Rok said with exhaustion starting to seep into his tone.
"That is hopeful, but not necessarily. They could be regrouping for another attempt or they might be deciding to bind their time. Whatever you do, don't leave your guard down." Runhar interjected with a tired snort of his own.
"Aye. Seen 'em do things like this longer ago. The moment ye think ye might have weathered the storm that is when they strike ya down like lightnin'." Zurra interjected, her armor splattered with blood not of her own, her metal shield bent and the hefty spear she wielded now slick with gore and blood as well.
Woh was hanging at the top of one of the towers now watching over the outside, the pink amphoran seeming chipper and mentally celebrating a most possible victory. At least, she did so until her eyes laid upon the the retreating Hay-yen gathering together around one who she saw dressed a bit better, possibly their assault leader.
What the tiny frog woman saw afterwards, made her cover her mouth as she croaked a choked sound, her eyes widening in horror. "U-uhm... b-brace..." she muttered with half her mouth.
Rok looked up at her as his ears caught her distressed tone. "What? What's wrong?" This caught Zurra's and Runhar's attention as they peeked up as well at their usually bubbly ally.
"B-BRACE THE GATE!" Woh croaked and squeaked at the top of her tiny lungs.
Runhar, back on active alert, once more began casting earth magicks to mount dirt up against the main entrance, but before he could finish a mad loud cackle echoed in the air and the gate exploded open. Wood cracked, popped and splintered, dirt got thrown about akin to a more bludgeoning shrapnel. Through the broken part of the gate entered a 10 feet tall shape. It was a mass of blackened flesh in the shape of a Hay-yen, the form clad in rows of bones, embedded into it. As the dust settled, two burning flames shined like beacons for the damned coming from empty eye sockets.
"You have wasted enough of my time, you mud eating vermin. Originally I was going to take all of you, but I am benevolent. Give me the Daeman and I am willing to not end your miserable existence." Vespertilia spoke through her new behemoth of a creation, the voice coming out distorted akin to a chorus speaking in unison. As the creature spoke, the teeth were placed in its over sized maw in rows, many of them, smaller compared to the monstrosity's mouth, arranged in uneven and unequal rows, akin to those of a shark, but more disheveled, hastily placed.
The four froze for a moment at the size of the oozing rotten flesh titan, but the silence of terror broke when Runhar smacked the flat of his handaxe against his shield. "I refuse. I still got training to do with him." Runhar replied with a glint of defiance in his eye.
"Ya daft drippy cunt want tha take the only apprentice I got?! The boi can withstand me forge like it's nothin'. Ya can go and get shafted by whatever tickles yer fancy." Zurra said as she tapped the bottom of her metal spear on the ground, the blade bursting in green flames with runes along the middle of the weapon's shaft.
Rok almost seemed to wish to suck his tusks in if he could. He was a bit further back leaning against one of the buildings and keeping quiet as his mind raced to get out of the shell-shock the monster put into him.
Woh laid low on top of the roof of the watch tower, her tiny heart pounding in rhythm with her inflating gullet. As she was quietly hyperventilating, she took more than a second to calm herself. 'G-gotta do somethin'! They'll get squished. Oh Gods, kero-... this is the first time I don't hate myself for my poison.'
Woh then peeked over the edge and with her back legs buckled she then leaped right over the large oozing monster in full silence.
"Hah! Imbecillic fools. You just signed your souls for damnation!" Vespertilia snarled and just as quick she could hear the nearly silent whispering of wind above her minion.
The behemoth nearly froze in place and as Woh was about to land on it, the oozing flesh parted creating a perfect hole that she passed through with ease.
"WHOA WHA-" She croaked in a panic as she barely managed to adjust her pose to land on the dirt. As the tiny body impacted grass and dirt, it was followed by a pained shriek as the pink amphoran managed to break a leg due to the whole situation.
"WOH!" Runhar shrieked as he rushed forward in a sprint, but he was quite a distance from both the creature and Woh.
"Shit!" Zurra joined as she ran in her half-plate to attempt to assist.
The burning eyes of the oozing flesh golen burst in bigger flames as it showed its teeth. "You, you I will enjoy killing." Vespertilia growled from her minion's maws as the flesh construct lifted up a foot, the flesh peeling back to leave only a foot made of an amalgamation of bones, which was quickly brought down towards Woh in a merciless motion.
The tiny pink amphibian covered her head with her tiny hands as if they were a rock to hide under, her form quivering in pain and fear, the big bubbly eyes shut tight under the double layered eyelids.