Chapter 23

I slammed down onto the serpent’s back with bone-rattling force, the flames shielding me just enough to blunt or burn the thorns around where I struck. I summoned firebolts, hammering them into the body of the snake, burning smoldering holes in the brambles. The looming head hissed like a landslide and darted forward, muzzle slamming into the smoking patch I’d quickly leapt out of, heedless of the small cuts and marks the brambles left on me. I climbed the foot-long thorns like handholds, clinging on as the snake thrashed, body bucking and twisting beneath me. I settled into another spot on its’ side and drew my wand, shoving it into the nest of thorns, releasing an uncontrolled surge of flames from it, sending them scattering and biting along the bark-like hide beneath. Thin streamers of smoke betrayed the sizzling gouts of fire chewing up the undergrowth, leaves and branches reluctantly igniting.

I laughed with a mixture of fear and joy, the serpent bucking beneath me, twisting me from side to side as I wreaked merry havoc on its’ body. It twisted and swerved, and then tried to grind the side of its’ body against the tower, a wall of grey stone speeding toward me like a trainwreck. I let go of the patch I was holding onto, dropping down onto where, much lower down the body, its’ tail still encircled the stone. I conjured a fireball even as the upper body struck and threw the hastily-assembled blast against the underside of its’ body, the shell breaking when it struck the thorns and flooding the brambles with flame. The head came around again and dipped down to slam into the top of the coil where I stood, its’ avalanche maw bashing into its’ own body with enough force to nearly knock me over the side despite my grip. I realized the body had turned onto its’ side when I looked over and saw the trees rising like a crest along its’ back, their crowns shaking with the force of movement, most of their branches shorn off from various impacts. I dropped down onto the trunk of one of the trees, grunting from the impact. The trunk was nearly horizontal, though it twitched and jerked with the massive serpent’s movements. I assembled a firebolt, drawing the energy together with a longer ‘fuse’, mental energy giving the spell extra coherence, and then tossed it negligently into the crown. It struck one branch, then another, bouncing upward from the force of impact before it burst, a surge of heat in the heart of the branches.

I felt a spike of danger as the head swiveled around the tower again, chasing after me with reckless persistence. Its’ maw opened up again with a snarl like a mulcher, and a shotgun spray of enormous splinters struck its’ side, littering the trunk I’d been standing on with projectiles. I laughed as I landed on the next trunk along, briefly scrabbling for purchase on the bark before hurling a trio of firebolts into the crown of this one, setting branches sizzling and crackling. I hurriedly leaped ahead to the next trunk, barely sparing a moment to ignite this one before leaping along to the next. The head bit at me, the boulder-like teeth in its’ mouth clamping shut on the trunk right behind me as I lunged to the next, the wood splintering in an instant. The roar it gave staggered me, the sound vibrating through my bones and the tree that I stood upon, the force stripping it of leaves. I started hurling firebolts all around me, targeting everything that looked even faintly flammable on its’ back. It reared back again, preparing to bite me, and I conjured up a fireball in return.

The blast I hurled struck the boulders in its’ open maw, sinking into them before the shell broke, scattering a blast of fire within its’ mouth. The head shuddered for a moment, heaving, before it lunged after me again, ramming into one of the blazing trees that I’d just leapt clear of. This time I climbed upward along to its’ side, leaping from one handhold to another, accruing a hefty tax of cuts and scrapes from the hostile growths along its’ outer ‘skin’. I stood next to the side of the tower, and began tossing firebolts at its’ massive head, most of them spattering uselessly off of it, while a couple managed to find purchase and dully smolder. Enraged, it dove toward me for another fierce bite, and I dove out of the way, choosing the foot-long thorns over the huge muzzle that pursued me. One of the thorns punched through the meat of my arm, drawing a ragged groan of pain that was quickly drowned out by another sound; the tower, already weakened and beset, could not handle the direct strike of the snake’s immense snout. Rocks groaned and ground as they toppled over, the top third of the tower coming down in a landslide that smashed through the bramble undergrowth that covered the snake’s hide, scouring it down to the thick, bark-like flesh below. A cascade of stones even managed to tear a ragged gash in the hide, spilling blood-like sap that glowed a vivid green. The beast drew its’ immense snout back, and keened in pain, head twisting this way and that as it looked at the huge wound inflicted on its’ side. Taking advantage of its’ distraction, I leapt across onto the ruined stonework, leaping from rock to rock, even as unstable as they were underfoot. I drew out my wand, and focused on firebolts as I poured energy from the tip, the natural flames becoming ensnared in mental energy and then boosted with my own power, firing off in a machinegun spray that set several spots along its’ hide ablaze.

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By now the serpent was nearly a third aflame, thick smoke pouring off of its’ body. I leapt clear of the flattened tower and onto the serpent’s bucking back, pulling the fires with me as I ran, dragging the embers clear of the wood, leaving only the faintest smoldering blazes behind. I gathered energy, drawing it together in my hand, cramming as much force into it as I could. I felt the gaze of the beast upon me, rearing back for another strike. I braced myself, eyes set on the prize as I leapt onto the patch of its’ body that was bereft of cover, standing with my feet on other side of the bleeding gash the stones had cut into it. I brought my hands together, going through the motions of forming what I needed from the fire spilling over my hands.

I remembered the splitting wedges I’d seen a friend use, the one time I’d gone camping with a few people. One side was a boxy hammerhead, the other a sturdy triangular chisel. You’d stand the wood up on its’ end, and strike along the grain, hopefully splitting the wood in half in a single strike. Tyler had succeeded occasionally, but the logs that ended up on our fire were probably the ugliest mismatched set of mauled chunks of wood ever set alight; but we’d saved the money on buying our own firewood, so it was worth it, right?

I summoned the splitting head in front of me, writ large; it was nearly as tall as I was, a sturdy triangular wedge backed by a broad flat hammerhead. I reared back, and slammed it down into the wound even as the serpent’s head struck. Rather than trying to dodge it or leap out of the way, I simply let gravity take over, tumbling off of the snake’s immense back.

I didn’t see the moment where it struck, but I had a pretty good idea what had happened even so. The head came back up, snout ablaze, and its’ body began writhing furiously. When I saw the thick, choking black smoke pouring from the bare patch of its’ side, I knew I’d been successful; where the concealing undergrowth had burned off easily but left tough bark beneath, there was no protection inside of that wound from the blow, the crystalflame construct lasting just long enough to be buried in the tough wooden flesh before it lost coherence, dissolving in a torrent of fire. I had a moment of breathing room as it struggled to find me, crawling behind cover of a tree to try and get my breath back; while I’d avoided the strike, I had instead struck the ground hard enough to drive the breath from my lungs, my ribs aching from landing flat on my back. If I hadn’t already burned away almost every living thing around the tower, the fire would’ve been far worse; as it was, whole sections of the serpent’s forested hide spilled thick pillars of black smoke, the body wracked by the harsh snarling, popping flames of the wildfire that steadily consumed it.

The snake drew itself up, finally pulling away from the ruins of the tower, and coiled back on itself, tying itself into a knot, with the head pushing through a twist of the body. As it dragged through, it made a horrific grinding, tearing sound, the trees and bushes shredding away from its’ body as it ground through, shedding all of the flammable mass that covered its’ body. Bushes, trees, brambles and thorns, all collapsed to the ground around the tower, leaving a devastated area of shed ‘skin’.

Now much leaner, the serpent shuddered as it shook free the last of the dirt and detritus clinging to its’ bark-like skin and gleaming heartwood beneath. Its’ whole body seemed slimmer, even the head having shed the covering of plants and bushes, revealing an enormous skull of old, bleached bone, lined with enormous triangular teeth each the height of a man. It spat aside the boulders, and they struck like cannonballs, shattering trees and throwing up plumes of dirt wherever they struck. When it roared, the avalanche was gone; in its’ place was a sound like an echo of immensity, a dragon’s roar that sent spears of terror into the primal part of my mind.

Oh, shit, I thought to myself. Phase two I guess.