Chapter 14: The Dreamer’s Bane
It didn’t matter how many Elma cut down.
Even as she turned her sword on one Dreamer after another, bringing it down through one skull after another, she knew that fact to be ironclad.
They pulled themselves from the water around the mound of rock, that initial hindrance to their movement was the only thing she had to keep them from swarming her all at once. She moved from one side of the mound to the other, swinging her sword, deflecting strikes from clubs and blades, cutting down one after another.
But it didn’t matter, for every so often Maltop would rub the Archon’s Eye sprouting from his head. A ring of white would form around the iris and flash the entire chamber bright white for only the briefest of moments. But that was all he truly needed.
Dreamers never truly died, barred from true death by the Archon's foul magics. But directly under his gaze, he could bring them back with far more precision.
The mist consuming the dead dreamers would speed up, devouring both their remains and weapons whole in seconds before new puffs of mist would appear. The very same Dreamers she’d just killed would emerge from the new mist exactly as they were before first engaging her, resuming the fight with fresh vigor and endless laughter.
The same way he’d overwhelmed armies in the past, the Archon’s Host just kept undoing any progress she even tried to make. With him there, the dozen of Dreamers around her may as well have been hundreds. They needed Maltop dead if they wanted the Dreamers to stay down.
Reaching him was out of the question solely because of Sev. The boot-licking filth just paced at the edge of the mound darting in whenever Elma would even try moving closer. Each time she would ward her off with a barrage of attacks before shadow-walking away and letting the Dreamers take her attention once more, the smug grin she had plastered on her pale face was endlessly infuriating.
She couldn’t even reach Yorm because of her, the water he’d been dragged into still stirring and writhing with movement below.
Which left Elma to be worn down by the ever-reemerging Dreamers.
There was only one thing besides removing Maltop that could help, the terrified Nurl fighting behind her.
Razzda had finally drawn Bullminth’s Blade from the gold scabbard, revealing the blade itself to be made of a pitch-black metal that became a dark blur each time she swung it.
But she wasn’t using it to attack, only to deflect the numerous swings of a massive battle-axe. The Melkish Dreamer blocking the path leading from the rock mound stood several times her height, standing head and shoulder above even Yorm with his axe slightly larger than he was.
Despite that, Razzda was able to swing Bullminth’s Blade into the axe and throw off his strikes. But unlike the Burybiters she’d fought earlier, the Melkish Dreamer had the raw strength needed to maintain his assault despite the hefty blows smacking into his weapon.
His rotting body didn’t keep him from pressuring Razzda with swings faster than even the smaller Dreamers, swings she flailed with Bullminth’s Blade to throw off.
Yet her pure defense brought a grimace to Elma’s face, and after kicking one Dreamer back into the water she rushed back towards her.
“Don’t fight~” The Melkish Dreamer sighed in between swings “Enjoy the light, please.”
“Yeah!” Nagsda shouted, desperately holding on to his shoulder “Stop trouble-making, runt!”
He reared back for another swing, and Razzda already started swinging when Elma shouted out to her.
“Swing down!”
Razzda yelped before swinging Bullminth’s Blade up above her head. She slammed it down into the battle-axe, smashing it into the rock below as Elma darted past. She hopped on to the thick handle of the battle-axe, locking her heels into its grooves before thrusting her sword through the Melkish Dreamer’s helmet into the pulp of his rotten brain.
“Aw…” he lurched back as his limbs went limp “Next time… then.”
A high-pitched snarl dragged Elma’s gaze to Nagsda, who got to her feet on the Melkish Dreamer’s shoulder as he fell. She leaped too quickly for Elma to draw free sword, so instead she brought her palm into the side of her face and slapped her into the water beside the path.
Hopping off the path next to Razzda, who was still panting with wide-eyes.
“Focus.” Elma snapped her fingers near Razzda’s ears before turning back to other Dreamers approaching “I need you focused! You’re the only one who can kill-!”
“Hi there!” cheered another dreamer as she lunged for Elma with a rusted maul.
Darting away, Elma brought her sword down through one of the Dreamer’s arms, but she just grabbed it with the other and kept her attack going.
“Come now Shiny eyes.” Maltop shook called out “Maltop not like seeing you struggle! Join dream easy-like. Not messy like the Lady Lass and Fuzzy-”
The water beside him erupted as something emerged with a guttural roar, drawing the attention of Maltop and several Dreamers. Elma took the opportunity to kick the maul-wielder away, eyes snapping towards the wildly shifting water as she saw another Dreamer being hauled up out of the water.
Rotten fingers clawed at the bloodied hand holding him up, but Yorm didn’t pay him much mind.
He was too busy prying a hatchet out of the head of another Dreamer with a growl
“Oh!” Maltop clapped as the Archon’s Eye flashed its white light again “Fight hard, fuzzy one! Maltop loves hard fighters, best part of clan!”
The only response he got from Yorm was having a Dreamer tossed his way. Maltop hovered out of the way as it splashed into the water beside him, floating backwards as Yorm tore through the water after him.
“Tch…” Sev sharpened her blades together before crouching low “Just have to make it difficult.”
She shadow-stepped to the air behind Yorm, but he was quick enough to deflect her strike and catch the reaching arm of another Dreamer in the water. He swung the Dreamer up between them just in time for Sev’s blade to get lodged into them, shoving both of them away before resuming his pursuit of Maltop
But despite Maltop being distracted, he’d already given the flash. Once again, the downed Dreamers were being rapidly consumed by the white mist of the Dream, some already emerging from new puffs of mist around the chamber.
Using the brief reprieve she had, Elma spun back towards Razzda. The frantic Nurl was hacking away at another Dreamer with Bullminth’s Blade, chopping her arms apart and slashing deep grooves throughout her torso.
“Tickly! Nice and tickly!” the Dreamer cackled before leaning forward to take a bite out of Razzda, who smashed the flat side of Bullminth’s Blade against her head and snapped her neck from the force “Kill me harder, harder damn you!”
Despite her head dangling, the Dreamer pushed forward until Elma brought her own sword down on her neck.
“Lady Lass!” Razzda spun on her, only to go wide-eyed at the sight of Yorm chasing Maltop around the chamber.
“Focus.” Elma pointed her sword towards the still cackling Dreamer head rolling nearby “You have to destroy their heads and feed them to the blade!”
“Razzda never feed stabber before.” Razzda eyed up Bullminth’s Blade “But she try!”
“Ahem.” The voice of the Archon echoed from the Eye again “Sev?”
Elma’s gaze snapped back towards Maltop, who watched on in amusement as seven Dreamers tried to overwhelm Yorm. But Sev was nowhere in sight, only a puff of black smoke that made Elma spin around trying to find her.
A glint of metal from above was what drew her attention to one of the paths lining the chamber walls. A shadow leaped from the darkness towards Razzda just as she was preparing to impale the severed head.
“Above!” Elma shouted as she shoved Razzda aside, moving to late to avoid the blade which dug through her leather garment and into shoulder. As if pure magma followed in its wake, the blade traveled down her back as Sev crushed the severed head under boot.
Elma bit down on her lip ferociously to muffle the scream as an entire trail of nerves were alit with pain, her sword feeling heavier in her grasp as she spun around to face Sev.
“Didn’t dodge that one, hm?” Sev brought one of her blades up to lick the blood from it “Usually don’t soil my tongue with the crimson of whores, but I shall make an exception for you.”
Her crimson eyes were alight with joy as she stood tall and kicked aside the headless Dreamer as it was consumed by white mist.
“Come now!” she began her approach “Try that fancy footwork while bleeding like a skewered swine.”
Elma readied herself for an incoming assault, keeping tabs on the chuckles and cheers of nearby Dreamers despite the harsh throbbing of the wound going down her back. But just as Sev was motioning for a charge, Razzda’s scream made both of them go still.
The Nurl charged Sev behind, leaping at her with Bullminth’s Blade and its scabbard in both hands. Sev spun out of the way as Razzda cracked the rock mound with the force of her attack, brandishing her blades only for Elma to try rushing her while she was distracted.
But Sev brought one of her own blades up to catch the swing of her sword, shoving it aside and thrusting her other blade, only for Bullminth’s Blade to swing down between them.
A second later, Sev’s severed forearm fell to the ground.
Sev shadow-walked away, stumbling out of black smoke nearby with a screech as she dropped her other blade and grabbed for the stump of her arm. She squeezed her eyes shut as blood spewed from her stump gripping tighter and tighter until the flow staunched.
Breathing out heavily, Sev opened her eyes as she released the stump, revealing that she’d managed to squeeze the flesh closed around the wound.
“Fine,” she turned her glare back to Elma as Razzda rushed to her side with concern “more dirty play then. Maltop!”
She called back to him, but Maltop seemed entranced by Yorm’s repeated dismembering of the Dreamers that rushed him. Despite heavy bleeding from several wounds that soaked into his fur armor with the water, Yorm’s limbs were still a blur.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
“Maltop!” Sev tried again, only to see Elma steel her stance and groan.
With most of the Dreamers focused on Yorm, Elma patted Razzda on the back before tightening her grip on her sword and moving towards Sev. Snarling, Sev bent down and picked up her fallen blade.
“Tell me, Tribal.” The voice of the Archon echoed from the Eye once more, making Elma and Sev go still at once.
“That’s Morgonian armor, hm?” The Archon’s Eye pulsed with green energies “Let me guess, you defy because of the monsters I keep protected? The ones I keep your people from slaughtering so wastefully?”
Yorm didn't respond, merely grunting as he hacked away at the Dreamers around him.
“I suppose I'll figure out after I've turned you.” The Archon conceded as the energy forming around the Eye focused into the iris “Maltop, if you would be so kind?"
Maltop suddenly spun in the air as the Archon’s Eye turned its glowing iris on Razzda. The energies focusing into a orb right before it.
Seeing the intent, Elma threw herself back to knock Razzda off her feet just as beam of pure green energy fired from the Archon’s Eye and blasted apart the path leading from the mound. The piercing round of screeching covered up the sound of the explosion, but Elma just covered the back of her head as rocks and heated chunks of stone scattered all over.
Only when the screech died down did she raise her head to see the scorch marks distorting what remained of the path, with steam rising from where heated rocks had fallen into the water.
“You missed, Maltop.” The Archon noted, prompting the host to grumble and rub at the Eye sprouting from his skull.
“Again!” Maltop rubbed at the Archon’s Eye as green energies began accumulating again “Maltop try-!”
A spinning Hatchet slammed into his gut before he could finish, throwing Maltop back only for him to halt in the air and look down at the tool embedded in his torso. He looked up to see Yorm shove aside a beheaded Dreamer as he rushed forth with his remaining hatchet.
Groaning, Maltop rubbed the Eye again. The white ring formed around the iris and flashed forth again, the Dreamers rapidly being consumed by white mist before they began emerging once more.
Grunting, Elma began pushing herself up. Feeling a small hand on her arm, she looked down to see Razzda tuck the scabbard under her armpit. Elma was about to argue against it, only to feel herself being pulled up onto her feet.
But before she could offer thanks, Elma’s ears caught the quickly approaching steps. Pulling away from Razzda, Elma spun around and raised her weapon just as Sev darted past her sword.
Seeing the blade swinging towards her, Elma dropped her sword and instead moved in as well. She caught Sev’s arm, gasping out as the blunt part of her blade slammed against the wound on her back, but she held firm. Even as the blade managed to dig into her side, Elma struggled to hold on.
“Don’t touch me, you filth!” Sev pulled, but Elma dug her heels in.
“Kill her Razzda!” she shouted “She can’t shadow-walk with someone holding-!”
Elma’s words died in her throat as she caught sight of something. Behind Sev, beyond the rock mound, Yorm had once again engaged the surging Dreamers whilst trying to reach Maltop.
But Maltop’s gaze was solely on her.
And the Archon’s Eye had yet another ball of bright green energy formed in front of it.
Elma lurched back, ignoring the horrid gash of Sev’s blade raking along her side as she tried to flee. Sev raised an eyebrow at her sudden attempt to flee, only for another green beam to slam into her back.
The explosion sent her slamming into Elma, throwing both of them back. Elma couldn’t stop from crying out as her back slammed into the mound and she lost her grip on her sword. Her wound felt lit on fire, her head was still reeling from the impact, and Sev had gone still on top of her.
The Yisshin wasn’t the problem, her massive coat was heavy enough to pin Elma to the chamber floor.
“Elma!” Razzda rushed to her side, immediately sheathing Bullminth’s Blade and rearing back to batter Sev off of her.
“Damn it!” Yorm’s voice made her pause, with Razzda looking towards him and wincing “Razz! Get over here!”
Razzda looked between Elma and him, only for Elma to grunt.
“She’s… dead.” Elma spat as she nudged Sev’s head aside “You two, you have to kill them.”
Razzda winced again before taking a breath and rushing over towards Yorm. Elma strained to twist her neck around with Sev on top of her, just barely catching sight of Razzda rushing to Yorm’s side just as he stepped out of the water.
With them dealing with the Dreamers, Elma turned her attention to her predicament. Though her wound still ached, the pressure of Sev and her over-sized coat pressing down was of far greater issue.
First pushing her legs, Elma tried wiggling out from underneath he Yisshin’s body. Sev’s head leaned to the side, giving Elma an up-close view of the crater in the back of her head. The blast had seared off the entirety of Sev’s back, with the rear of her coat still burning with green embers flickering off.
But as Elma was looking for a method of getting out from under her, she spotted Maltop floating away from the battle.
He floated down to the water, reaching down, only for another small hand to emerge and grab hold.
Floating back up, Maltop dragged Nagsda out of the water. She clung to the hatchet in his chest as her head dangled from her broken neck. But Maltop grabbed hold of her grinning face, and focusing more of that green energy into her. It was brief, with him dropping her back into the water afterwards, but then he turned his gaze towards her again.
She struggled under Sev with growing ferocity as Maltop smiled, that white ring appearing in the Archon’s Eye again before the chamber was filled with another flash of white.
And just like that, Sev’s eyes began to glow.
Behind the red spheres that were her eyes, Elma could see the glow of the Dream taking form. Swinging her head around, Elma tried to find where her sword had fallen, twisting her shoulders to try and free her arms as Sev’s body began moving.
“Kh-!” a strangled gasp worked its way out of Sev’s throat as her red eyes began to move again “What-?!?”
Her confusion was the only thing that spared Elma then and there, as Sev leaned up in a daze.
She was still pinning Elma’s waist but she was able to look up and cats her gaze around for her sword. Catching sight of Yorm and Razzda fighting through the Dreamers, Elma’s gaze snapped towards the handle of her sword lying just out of reach.
Something small bounced off the side of her head, and Elma looked towards the small crimson sphere which rolled on the ground nearby. She quickly looked up to see Sev cutting at her own face with her blade, one Eye socket emitting the light of the Dream as her other eyeball just fell out of her head.
“Why is it so good!?!” her confusion turned to euphoria as she continued slicing deep grooves into her pale skin “I-I didn’t think it would be so good!”
With her arms free, Elma took the only route available and swung a fist into the side of Sev’s head. The impact forced Sev off of her, but she didn’t halt her blissful self-mutilation even as she rolled onto the ground. Elma turned and scrambled for her sword.
“Everything’s perfect!” Sev Squealed in delight “So clear, so beautiful!”
Grabbing the handle of her sword as tight as possible, Elma spun around whilst forcing herself into as good of a battle-ready stance as she could muster. Sev was lying in a pool of her own blood, writhing in it whilst slicing away at her own clothes.
“To be so loved, so admired~!” she sang out, grin widening as she rolled over and let the pieces of her coat fall apart around her “You are undeserving, truly!”
Elma raised her sword as highly as she could, rushing Sev only for another cloud to appear around her. Unlike the black smoke she’d vanished into before, this was a gray mist that left only the splotch of blood behind.
Elma spun at the sound of giggling, watching Sev stumble towards her with chunks of flesh now missing from her torso. Her one good arm still swung her blade wildly, but before she even got near she fell into yet another cloud of gray mist.
Elma steeled herself as Sev continued reappearing and disappearing, her shadow-walking jerky and lacking the professional movements she’d had before. What’s more every time she emerged there was less of her, with flesh and blood being left behind whenever time she shadow-walked.
But that was little help to Elma, even if the Dream had corrupted Sev’s shadow-walking abilities, that didn’t mean much if she was using it so rapidly. She barely gave a care for the pieces she left behind, growing giddier whenever she Shadow-Walked away.
Elma couldn’t even land a strike on her, only getting her sword covered in Sev’s remains several times as she tried to pin down the Yisshin.
“So tired-looking.” Sev cooed behind her, forcing her to spin and swing her sword only to hit the gray mist again.
“Try now!” Sev spat into her ear, with Elma just barely able to deflect the swing of a blade fore she was left staring at the mist once more.
The heel of a boot slammed into her back and forced her forward onto her knees, but when she readied her sword and looked back she instead saw movement in front of her. Sev swung her blade, with Elma managing to bring it up between them in time for the handle of Sev’s Blade to fracture on it.
Several of Sev’s fingers went flying in the process, but that didn’t stop her from swinging back with the broken handle and slamming it into Elma’s face.
“Not so weak now, hm?” Sev asked as Elma struggled to rise “I wish I could deny this pleasure to you, but the Dream is beyond my spite, whore.”
Elma scooted back on her elbows a bit as Sev’s figure swam before her, shimmering in and out of focus as the pulsing ache from her last strike grew more intense.
“It is for all, and all are eternal in its loving embrace!” Sev cheered, picking up her own severed arm and prying her other flat blade out of its grasp “Unshackled by death, unshackled by life! Forever and moon shall we persist and-!”
Elma’s eyes went wide as Sev’s head split in half. Shaking the throbbing sensations from her head, she leaned up just in time to see the black blade tearing down through her body. It split her head to groin, with the manic grin Sev wore faltering as both halves fell away from each other.
Standing just behind her, a panting Razzda let the tip of Bullminth’s Blade rest on the floor of the mound.
“Sorry!” Razzda winced at the sight of her before looking back “Long fighting! Fuzzy one said focus!”
Eyes drifting from both halves of Sev, Elma looked to see Yorm pursuing Maltop once more.
Only there were no Dreamers aiding him, just lifeless bodies now covering the rock mound or floating in the water around it.
Razzda yelped as Bullminth’s Blade suddenly jerked in her grasp, with her dropping the scabbard and holding tight with both hands as the White mist appeared around Sev’s remains. Before it could draw her in, the mist instead was pulled towards the blade, disappearing against the metal until Razzda was able to lower it once more.
The sight was more beautiful than anything Elma had seen in years, but Razzda was apparently blind to the wonder she’d just performed. She grabbed the scabbard again and ran to Elma’s side.
“Lady Lass, good?” she asked “Only Maltop now! We winning!”
Elma wanted to feel good about being so close to killing the host, but then she recognized the fault in Razzda’s words. She sat up, massaging the darkening bruise on the side of her face as she scanned the dead Dreamers.
Civilians and knights raised from all over the Union no-doubt, but not one Nurl among them.
“Nagsda.” Elma’s gaze snapped towards the water “he was doing something to-”
Elma’s throat ran dry as she located her.
Her neck stretched out of the water, snapped and broken in several places but still holding still. Atop that long, root-like neck was Nagsda’s head, giving a passive, open-mouthed smile.
“If you can move, helm me flank the bastard!” Yorm’s shout drew Elma’s gaze back to him “He ain’t bringing more back, so we must’a ran him dry!”
“Don’t mean Maltop defenseless!” Maltop cheered as he gathered more green energies into the Archon’s Eye.
Yorm saw the ball of energy form and flung self away as another beam fired into the water nearby, blasting it all over the chamber.
“Come on!” Razzda nudged Elma before rushing to aid Yorm.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself onto her feet and moved to join as well, only for her to notice a scent growing the closer she got to the edge of the mound. Though Razzda and Yorm were already trying to force Maltop between them, Elma couldn’t get the scent from the her thoughts.
It was wafting from Nagsda, of that she ha no doubt. But what drew her attention was how familiar the sweet, pleasant scent was.
And how distractingly out of place it was.
“Dolmutt honey?” she couldn’t help saying out loud, only for a pleased hum to emanate from the Archon’s Eye.
“Oh,” the Archon’s eye echoed as Maltop darted away from his attackers “I had no idea we were in the presence of an aristocrat.”
Elma couldn’t understand, they had his host on the ropes and he went and made one of his last defenders start producing the scent of an exclusive honey? The Archon wasn’t known for jokes, he utilized every advantage he could.
What in god’s name was he doing.
“Focus damn it!” Yorm shouted at her “I need you to get on his side so we can box him in!”
“Too late!” Maltop cackled before hovering back over the water towards the wall of the chamber “Hungry one getting good eats!”
That was it, that single label made a massive pit form in Elma’s gut.
“Wait… get away from the wall!” she shouted just as Yorm and Razzda moved to give chase, “It caught up!”
But that was all she was able to get out before the wall of the chamber was torn open.
The sound of a crowd laughing manically filled her ears.