“I’m not sure I meant this quickly,” Excalibur’s voice frantically rang out in Stan’s head as the blade bit deeply into one of the four mages channeling around the portal. Stan had decided not to waste any time and leaped directly at the nearest battle mage. He figured the element of surprise was still on his side, and there was no promise it would last if he tried to return for the others. Not that he didn’t intend to get their help.
“Hey, can you call out for Frank and Ethel but make it sound like you are calling in a whole army? Just make sure it’s loud enough for them to hear. I doubt I’ll hold the upper hand long,” Stan mentally asked the sword.
At Stan’s request, the cavern filled with a deep booming voice. “The trap is sprung. Captain Frank, bring your men and help to finish the assault,” the command rang out, shocking the several forms around Stan, but he was sure that with how loud that was, there was no ignoring it. Help was almost certainly on the way.
In the meantime, he needed to continue this fight alone. He stabbed the point of his blade down hard into the fallen mage’s skull, not wanting to give it a chance to join the battle. This cost him as he felt searing blasts of heat impact his left leg. The pain was excruciating, but he ignored it as he slashed out again towards the nearest mage. Strangely, he felt his own pain lesson as the battle mage’s blood ran down the sword.
“That was me, Stan, I am working to increase your rate of healing. It is good I took in as much energy as I did, as this wound is deep, and I will need to attempt to close this rift once we secure the area,” Excalibur answered Stan’s thoughts on his lessening pain.
“That’s a lot of faith you have in me in here, buddy,” Stan responded as he spun around towards one of the still unwounded mages, slamming his elbow into the face of the one he had just wounded as he did so. They grunted loudly and fell to the ground with a thud.
Another blast of fire hit him hard in the chest, forcing him to the ground as he gasped for air. His lungs felt like they were on fire. It was worse than when he had been forced to breathe in tear gas. He forced air into his lungs despite the pain that accompanied it. His vision was getting hazy. Just as he let his mind start to consider whether this had been a massive mistake, he heard a new voice enter the brawl.
“How dare you hurt Frank’s friend. You will regret ever angering the might of the Tree Titan!” The voice was accompanied by several loud thuds and squelches. Stan felt it growing easier to breathe, and no more magical blasts came. Frank had bought Excalibur enough time to knit his lungs back together.
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Coughing loudly and with far more blood than he would like, Stan managed to push himself to his feet and look around at the chaotic fighting. Frank currently had one of the two mages on the ropes as she shrugged off several spells that hit him point blank. Stan was impressed at far that kid had come under Ethel’s guidance. Ethel herself was still standing at the entrance to the chamber, but her handiwork was easy to see. The two Gryalth workers and the last battle mage were fighting off an endless supply of vines wrapping around them.
“Before you rush into help then, I suggest you instead tell them to handle themselves and thrust me into the rift. Without the mages controlling what is allowed through, we are about to attract extremely unwanted attention if we don’t get that shut,” Excalibur said in Stan’s head.
Not one to argue with a very pertinent point, Stan ran to the edge of the portal and pushed the sword into it as instructed. He felt an incredible force begin pulling the sword from his hand the moment it made contact, refusing to let it be lost into the abyss. He held on as tightly as he could, keeping it from being entirely engulfed. “I don’t know how long I can hold this. You better work quick,” he yelled as his footing slipped the tiniest bit and was pulled slightly closer.
As though in response, the red tear in space he was fighting against flared a bright green, then purple, just as two claws started to emerge from it. Each claw was bigger than Stan’s head, pushing his desire for the sword to work faster to the forefront of his mind.
“Pull harder now!” The voice echoed out from the rift, and Stan did his best to obey. He strained every muscle he had available as he wrenched the sword slowly backward.
“Come on, damn you!” Stan screamed as he struggled to get the last few inches of the sword free. The claws had emerged further as he pulled. Several more had come into view, along with the paws they extended from. Stan took that as motivation and pulled with every last bit of strength he had, feeling the sword finally come free. He watched as the rift sealed itself severing parts of the creature as it did so.
“Well, that was interesting, what was it, and why are there parts of giant paws and claws on the ground where it used to be?” Ethel asked. Stan realized that during his struggle to hold the sword, both Ethel and Frank had finished off the surviving Gryalth.
“The Gryalth appear to be reaching into the depths of the abyss of the plucking forth beasts,” Excalibur answered.
“Okay, but why?” Stan didn’t expect a more concrete answer. The sword would only be able to speculate. It didn’t have any more current information than he did.
“I don’t know, but I do have both good and bad news. Closing the rift drained my energy levels below any risk of dangerous overload. That is of course, also bad news as we will need to seek out the more dangerous pools, and I would assume our time of secrecy is entirely gone,” Stan agreed with Excalibur’s assessment. They were likely at war now, and considering how long Earth lasted in those, he didn’t like the odds.