Lavanda

High in the sky, under the beautiful sun, a scorching fire breath was smoking the hydra scales but did little damage. His attention was constantly shifting between the wyvern and the dragon that wanted to painfully tear all of his heads off.

We were on Randal, as he dipped just fast enough to avoid a joined bite attack of the monster nine heads. Swords in our hands, we sliced at every head that dare getting too close. Leaving multiple small cuts on each of them.

At the same time, Lendwrek rammed into the monster's side using his full weight. Disoriented by the bash, the hydra tried firing a poisonous breath attack at the dragon, but even with his bulky size, he evaded it with little difficulty.

Now in the monster ever-shifting blind spot, Randal flew behind it as we prepare our spell. Gathering light in her hand, Caryly concentrated as much magical energy as possible in her palm. As for me, I casted a small fireball in my hand and started accumulating heat in it.

Unfortunately, before our spell was finished, one of the monster heads checked his back and noticed us. Seeing that we were up to something, he launched a cloud of toxic gas all around him. Hidden in the vast deep green smoke, we lost track of him but knew he was in there.

As we continue our preparation, I scream at Randal.

“Dive!” Without waiting, he followed my order and a second later, nine green toxic blasts came out from the cloud, aiming at us. As we fly away, they followed us around with precision. If Randal would have been any slower, we would have been caught.

“Are you ready?” I yell at Caryly behind me.

“Not yet!”

As the blasts tracked us, Lendwrek was on the opposite side, firing his own fire blast at the smoke. He must have hit the hydra because the attack stopped and a scream of pain came out. He however still didn’t want to come out and the waiting game continue.

Circling around the smoke cloud, Lendwrek and Randal bombarded it with more fire blasts.

“I’m ready!” I heard just behind me. It was the signal I was waiting for.

“Randal, get me close, very close!” Uncertain of my decision, the wyvern glance at me before reluctantly obeying.

Now approaching the gas at high speed, Caryly launched the light spear she was holding on. The fireball in my hand had grown significantly bigger now and was as big as my head. The heat emanating from it made me sweat, and without my fire affinity, I would have been toasted by it a while ago.

Aiming at the spear, Carly just launched, I threw my fireball at it, and we began preparing the follow-up. Circling the wind around the toxic dome, we had to be fast before our projectile reach its target.

Noticing that something was about to hit him, the calamity try fleeing out of the cloud, on the side opposed to us. He was greeted by multiple tons of dragon scales bashing him back in the smoke cloud that he loved so much. Three of his heads were knockout by the sheer power of Lendwrek's attack and were now sleeping for a while.

With the monster in the dome, the light spear and fireball met and joined together into a single shot. Tracking it target with precision, the fire spear enters the green cloud, and it was time to finish the spell.

“Now!” We both screamed.

Using the wind, we created an invisible barrier around the monster, imprisoning it. With how high in the sky we were, there were plenty of airflows to feed the last part of the spell, making it quite solid.

A few moments after the dome barrier was set up, the toxic gas inside it burned in a giant explosion, contained within the wind prison. As the flames were scorching everything that was inside, we were concentrating our magic, making sure that the shield around the cloud would hold up.

I could feel something crashing relentlessly at the barrier, trying to get out. With the worried expression on my friend's face, I knew she felt it too, but we kept the barrier up.

Lendwrek was now hovering beside Randal, looking for any sign of the monster freeing himself of our spell. The temperature inside it should melt even the toughest of monsters by now, we made as many cuts as possible for that very reason. Monster scales, and Calamity scales, in particular, are extremely solid and resistant to magic and physical attack. But with open wounds, a spell can infiltrate the body and render its defence less effective.

We were fighting against a calamity monster, even after multiple minutes of holding the spell up, there was no way we would let it down that quickly. The unyielding impact against the shield only increased our determination, the problem was that our worries grew as well.

The flaming light spear should have tracked, pierced and stuck to the hydra, with the power and damage behind it, it would take tremendous force to just take it out. The fire spell attached to it would then burn hotter and hotter until we cancel the spell. The problem was that we never tested it against a calamity monster before.

After we discovered this spell combination by accident, we used it in our most dire situation, but nothing ever survived this long, especially with how much magic we put into it.

The mana-hungry spell wouldn’t last forever, no matter how great our mana capacity was. The only reason it was still up was because of the abundance of mana in this area. Wind and light were two of the more present mana type here, but I had to produce the fire myself. It was without taking into account that even if we use ambient elements, we still need to use some mana to control it.

At this point, I left the wind control entirely to Caryly, and focus all my mana left on the burning fire. After all, even after being launched, most spells still needed nutrition to function properly. If a magician ever empties his mana reserve before the end of combat, most of the time it would result in his death.

With some hope, the monster would die before this happened, but as with all things related to calamity, the odds were against us.

----------------------------------------

It had been more than 5 minutes since the monster had been trapped in Lavanda and Caryly's spell. High in the sky, their work looks like a giant fireball with some shade of dark green ready to burst at any moment.

Mendry was almost ready to take the sky again, but she wouldn’t be able to fly as fast before some rest.

Feeling like she was in a good enough state, she tried to join Lendwrek, but I stopped her.

“Mendry you stay here! Your wounds are worse than you think, and you’re lucky you haven’t been poisoned the first time!” The medicine Lavanda make is without a doubt extremely effective, but not omnipotent. As long as Mendry didn’t receive more injuries, she would be fine, but nobody can heal the dead. I could understand her wanting to help her husband, but right now she would be more worried than help.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

My plague affinity let me sense the power of the poison and toxic gas used by the monster, and I’m pretty sure that without any powerful antidote, it was fatal. I and Hybry could take it without too much problem, but without a plague affinity, this was a death sentence. The only other who could probably survive was Tara, but I wouldn’t bet on that.

Just as Lavanda instructed, our bags were outside and ready to be taken. Without having more to do, other than watching Mendry and hoping everything goes well, I put on my battle-ready attire.

I put Tara in charge of Hybry, and for now, she kept him on her back, tight on with webs, so he wouldn’t fall or try anything funny. At first, he didn’t like the idea of being on a leash, but when he saw that he didn’t have a choice, he gave up protesting. I knew that inside he was very stressed, with his heart beating fast. Whenever I had the chance, I gave him a little hug or pat to reassure him.

It might be optimistic but things up there seem to be going well. I was surprised by how long they could keep up the spell, but the longer, the better. If they knew that the bastard was dead for sure, they would have cancelled it at this point. But since their spell could end at any moment, I made sure everything was ready for a potential last-minute escape.

Our home was relatively unharmed, but our island on the other side was a total wreck. The glass of the greenhouse had shattered entirely, with only the metal structure holding up. The wyvern tower was shattered in half, with the stone pieces laying everywhere. I didn’t see what happen. My guess was that it was probably Mendry that collided with it when she fell from the sky. The small earthquake was the result of the said collision.

Our natural lake on the island was still there, but now instead of being a clear blue, was a deep green. While shooting his toxic blasts, the calamity spread some of the toxins everywhere on the island. While I already neutralize some of it with my own plague affinity, the toxicity of the lake was too high for my ability, and knowing that neither Caryly nor Lavanda had an antidote or spell strong enough to cure it, the lake was lost for good.

The only other thing that was still holding up, other than the house, was the dragons’ den I built. Somehow, it had been spared from all the things happening in the sky.

With nothing else to do other than wait, I closed my eye and concentrate on my senses. Since Hybry became my familiar, I felt like my plague affinity somehow grew from our connection.

When I concentrate enough, I was able to get a feel of the Calamity monster's location in its smoky prison. Right now, it was more like noticing a magical blur spot rather than a precise shape and form, with practice, I probably could get it to be more accurate. Still, I had to concentrate to sense it, even with how much plague mana that thing is emanating.

From the faint presence I was sensing from the monster, I felt him rammed into the barrier like it was the only thing it could do. Looking at Hybry, his eyes were following the hidden monster, just like me.

It took me a moment to notice that the monster stop his useless attack against the prison. He just stood in the middle of the prison, with the flames eating his skin and burning him alive. If he was dead, he would have splattered against the bottom of the dome.

Maybe he gave up? With how much heat of power the spell had, there was no way for anything else other than a Calamity monster to survive this long. Considering how dangerous it was, there was no way to let a wild Calamity monster live, if we had the chance to kill it.

Lavanda and Caryly seem to have noticed the change, but still kept the barrier up. Killing it, was the smartest, most logical and safest thing to do. I had no reason to stop them, and Hybry didn’t seem too sad about us killing his parent. We were his family.

It was then that I heard it again… the maddening screech. The monster howled with everything it had left in him, forcing us to cover our ears in pain. The scream lasted a good 10 seconds but felt like an eternity to my ringing brain.

Looking up, the two spell casters were still holding the spell up, but Randal and Lendwrek were having difficulty staying stable. Luckily, Lavanda was not someone to take flying lightly and had secured themselves safely on the saddle from the start.

With how the fight has been going until now, I had forgotten that the monster had this scream in the first place. Having never seen it directly use it, I just remember why Lavanda was originally frightened by my report.

Looking out, I saw small flying monsters here and there that were affected by the madness, but our island was relatively away from heavily populated areas. Adding to the fact that there were three big predators living with us, the enemy reinforcement was meagre, to say the least.

The only thing that matters for things to go well was to protect Lavanda and Caryly, and that is exactly what Lendwrek got to do. Chomping down any wild and affected creatures that were coming their way, he made sure that nothing was disturbing them as they seal the Calamity fate.

Looking far away, flocks of more creatures were coming our way. Not as much as when I first heard the scream, but still enough to maybe overwhelm Lendwrek.

Mendry seem to notice them too, as she started flapping her wings. With little to do other than watching, I climb on her back and gave her the green light.

“Tara! Keep Hybry safe at all costs, I’m counting on you queen!” I yelled. Tara might be small right now, but I knew better than to underestimate her. She could handle any stray monster that get to her without problems, so leaving Hybry in her care on the island was the safest option for now.

With my mana reserve being nearly full, we intercepted the flying pack before they got too close to the main event. At this point, Mendry had little trouble with her injuries, but we decimated all monsters before they made contact with us. We made sure to keep our distance away from danger, after all, I rather avoid the same hell as last time.

Waving my water and acid fluids around, monsters were raining from the sky as they scream from pain, unlike the Calamity. Mendry fireballs were not as big or hot as Lendwrek ones, but as long as they obliterated everything in one hit, I had no complaints.

The sight of crispy burned and melted monsters raining would have been something to witness if it wasn’t for our situation. Because, before I got the chance to take in the situation, another pack of monsters was coming.

We quickly dispatched them and all who come after in no time. They were no way a group of this calibre could have caused any problem for us.

Flying back to the island, this time we joined Lendwrek as he chomped on any single poor thing that got too close.

As we fly close to Randal, Lavanda glanced at me and seems to lose some of the tension on her face.

“How long can you two keep this up?” I asked, surprised that they were still able to keep the spell up.

“A few minutes at most, I stop increasing the heat due to my mana running low. Now we just need to keep baking him in the oven.”

“Want me to add more fire spell to it?”

“No, hotter than that won’t help much, so keep your mana. All that matters now is how long can he survive in this hell. Right now, he already has most of his skin entirely melted, all that is left is the muscle, bones and meat that are protecting his organs.” Lucky I, the burning cloud prison acted as censorship, otherwise it might have needed some blur to keep me from puking up.

Thinking about it, I didn’t know if any monster deserved that fate of being melted alive for what must feel like hours for him, but we had our priorities and little to no mercy for those who put our family in danger.

As I was thinking, I felt the blur in the cloud dropping to the bottom of it. Lavanda, Caryly and I looked at each other for a moment before nodding.

“Everyone, get away! I’m gonna dispel the barrier!” Caryly yelled.

When we were all far enough, she cancelled the wind prison, and all the concentrated toxic flames that were accumulating in it spread all around. Luckily, it was so high up in the sky, that it didn’t even have a chance to reach our island.

As the clouds got lost, the Calamity's body fell to the ground, creating a crater in our already damaged island. At least it didn’t hit anything or anybody. Flying to ground level, we disembark our mounts and approach the corpse with caution. Tara joined us with Hybry safe on her back.

The sight was truly horrible. Burned patches of skin were everywhere, the muscle looked like overcooked meat and what was left of his blood could be seen leaving the body, as most of it has already been evaporated long ago.

The thing was that I still felt the monster's presence with my plague affinity, meaning it was still alive. The extremely small movements of his burned body, were the proof that his heart was still beating, at least for now.