Phelian Starr

Within him the white flames flickered, dimming before the terror and then raged in defiance. Heat washed through the arisen guardian as his veins stung with power. His eyes gleamed with purpose. Seven demonic cranes prowled towards the Sixty. Their postures were unafraid. Only a hunter’s certainty before an assured kill. He balked at that monstrous confidence. Grinning with mad glee. Dissenting.

“My friends, we must charge!” declared Phelian, purified flames ran up his sword and decorated his shield. Giddy at the prospect of saying these words. “The Sixty falters, but the momentum must be taken back! With me!”

He bolted forward.

Without a single look back, the undaunted guardian raced toward the closest monster. He didn’t look back. Wasn’t worried. Didn’t need to see that his party would follow. Phelian had complete trust and faith that they would come. Death had not broken them, nor would it. Only despair could. And that only if it was allowed. An undeniable truth. Defiance before such things. They would stare horror in the face and act unflinching.

Phelian was doing just that. An act of love to several degrees. Joy filled his heart like a song. A tune unwritten, the words unchosen. Yet still, it was sung. By the slap of the foot and the swish of his arms. Whispering in his ears and almost forming on the tongue. He was a spark of light racing at the terrible darkness that the demon cranes had emerged from.

The monster he was aimed at upped its pace to meet him. A clacking cry with each delicate step. Its feathers furled like a greeting, releasing a dank and rotten smell. Old attic mixed with forgotten meat. Phelian gagged but didn’t slow. Charged smoothly with a smile.

Once in range, the demon crane attacked. Vestigial wings flung it forward in a sudden snap of motion. The sharp pointed beak, slightly open, rocketed directly at Phelian. White fire streamed into the shield in an instant, blinding light focused to a single point. As the tiny man and great bird collided there was a burst of red power and white flame.

An indignant squawk grated the ears as the demon crane stumbled back in surprise. Embers of white began to take hold in the feathers of the beast. It fluttered frantically in alarm. Phelian picked himself off the ground a short distance away. A little shaken up, but still burning brightly. The monster seeing the white fire wouldn’t go out, turned to the pesky source. It raised a mighty scream, shattering the air before diving savagely at the undaunted guardian.

His faith was rewarded as Phelian’s party arrived as had been hoped and expected.

Spears of flame and hissing spheres of darkness peppered the feathered fiend from the side. The red fire died on contact while the darkness shaved off feathers without marring flesh, but the demon crane flinched back from both. Phelian didn’t miss the opportunity. Immediately sprinting beneath the demon crane. His fire wrapped around the sword as he charged a leg. A swing of pure stinging light. There was a spurt of sizzling blood and then a loud clang.

Phelian jerked and tripped as his sword suddenly wouldn’t go any further. Like trying to swing a bat at a steel pole. His arm vibrated with pain. He stumbled away, with a ringing in his ears. The demon crane danced away and the beak came down to retaliate. A streak of gray passed silently through the air. Thick blood splattered, Amiyah’s arrow struck the giant bird’s eye.

It screamed in pain, slamming the ground in a miniature stampede. The undaunted guardian dipped and ducked to avoid being stomped on. Unbalanced, the talons caught up with him. A step not quite out of the way but Hector was there. A dome of force appeared long enough to deflect the blow.

“I think it has metal bones,” said Phelian conversationally, with a hint of frustration. “Which, I suppose makes sense… it does eat metal monkeys.”

His partner rolled their eyes and replied, “You’re a freaking madman! I can’t believe you ran out on your own!”

“Well, that’s how you fight a giant beast, get under it,” countered Phelian. The demon crane came around from the pain and turned to the closest target, two bickering men. Making the obvious choice for him, the undaunted guardian rushed back between the legs. Hector cursed under his breath while giving chase.

While they ran, Phelian added, “See I don’t get why I’m getting flack here. Malachi just did the same thing and we all rushed all the same!”

“You’re both mad and I don’t love him,” growled Hector. “I’m quite sure Julia will give him plenty of sharp words about his martyr complex later. You are just reckless and lucky enough to make it work. Most of the time.”

“Luck is a nice multiplier,” he grinned cheekily.

Tired of blinding itself to outside attacks, the demon crane began to concentrate on trying to crush the two running humans. One step and attempt at a time. Phelian and Hector began to dash about. Striking small blows and throwing up barriers to trip up the creature. It wobbled a few times, but stayed showed extraordinary balance. A very successful trip was spoiled by a near horizontal swerve to standing. An impressive maneuver with its body mass.

Exhaustion became the name of the contest saw Phelian, unless something changed. They couldn’t easily escape from the monster. Being underneath offered some safety, but it would be dangerous the moment they were out in the open. The issue was that eventually the two of them would tire out. Therefore standing still would get them killed. Mana could only push the body so far. Phelian sunk into thought as his body followed a loop of defensive movements. Hector kept them safe from the clever strikes.

Hmm, these little nicks on the legs aren’t doing much, thought the undaunted guardian. Metal bones are hard to beat! Plus the healing factor is no joke, or the blood is just that thick. Well, if being down here is pointless… time to go up!

Deciding a plan of action, Phelian shifted his shield to the restraint on the back and pulled the belt dagger free. He turned to Hector and calmly announced. “Keep it busy down here, I’m going up!”

Wings of white fire sprung into life and he leaped. Soaring straight up into the air. Hector yelled, “Wait! I can’t follow…” but the rest was lost in the whistling winds.

He peaked just above the torso, and a flap of the fiery winds sent him arcing toward the demon crane. It caught sight of the streak of light and snapped to catch Phelian. A plume of flames arced from his protective slash. The bird avoided the attack, but earned him the room to land. Which went roughly. Immediately the dagger was lost on impact and he bounced across the bird’s body. The undaunted guardian tumbled through the damp feathers, going far enough to be precariously close to falling off the other side. Several handfuls of the feathered stalks slowed his momentum, after three or four uprooted at his grasping. Enough to prevent his fall. Only his feet hung over dead air.

Vertigo made the climb back a cautious one. A rare action for him, but the body of the monster did shake with every stomp. Once safely in the middle, the view atop wasn’t as spectacular as expected. The air was filled with oily smoke. Here and there his wings had ignited patches of plumage. Which had the benefit of providing some cover from the impressive bending of the demon crane’s neck. The foul thing didn’t have enough time to spot Phelian with the harassment from his party.

Crouched while thinking up the next step of his master plan, the undaunted guardian took a moment to survey how the rest of the Sixty were doing. Just some quick snapshots between smoldering towers of smoke. With the metal monkeys gone, the melee had retreated back to form lines. A dome of barriers protected the bulk of the Sixty who had stuck together. Phelian had peeled one demon crane off, but the other six circled like sharks. Pecking and jumping high to stomp down in search of a weak spot. It occurred to him that from the angle the birds seemed curious and playful. Intrigued by the newness of humans.

From the flashes of colors, Phelian could see who pushed the assault outside the shield wall. Explosions of orange, slashes of rose, and bursts of dark blue. Distracting and tripping the avian monsters into themselves. No doubt at Leon’s command, the barriers that made the top of the dome rotated in an intricate dance. Shifting the fields to recover or defend. Gaps appeared for moments to let a surge of ranged attacks. Spurts of arrows. Arcs of spells. Damien’s violet onslaught.

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The damage was fairly spread out. No one demon crane looked ready to fall, but the Sixty looked prepared to hold the position for a while. He wasn’t worried about them. Just hoped that reducing their concerns by one was the right move.

He looked away and returned his focus back to the current fight. The smell and smoke had finally faded into the background enough for some coherent thought. Phelian shifted his hands along the skin of the beasts. Feeling for where the spine and ribs met. Bird anatomy wasn’t a specialty, but it wasn’t that different in the broad strokes, as he remembered. Tangling further with the metal bones would be a waste of time.

One hand gripped a quill while the other shifted through the feathery jungle. Getting an idea of the spine’s location and where the ribs joined. He picked a soft dip between the ribs close to the neck. The undaunted guardian assumed that this would give him good access to the vital organs. Steadily and carefully, Phelian stood up. Like standing on a shifting platform, his hips and knees rotating to perch firmly.

White fire streamed from his veins into the sword. Pooling it thickly within. The light radiated out of the sword like a holy cross. Then the undaunted guardian plunged it down with all his empowered might. The blade passed through the skin like butter, slipped off the bone, and dropped down to the hilt. With a thought, the contained flames were wildly freed inside. Power and pressure exploded outwards below his feet. There was time, for a fleeting moment, that Phelian felt some regret for the hasty decision. He realized that perhaps stabbing between your feet with what was essentially an explosive might be a mad idea.

The demon crane shrieked. A rumbling quickly turned into a flash of white light. He was thrown into the air in an eruption of flesh and fire.

Frantically, Phelian tried to reignite his wings. The wind was howling again as he plummeted towards the forest floor. A beak slammed into his side. Just barely missing an arm as it snapped close. His fall became a tumble as the blow sent the undaunted guardian spinning. Everything was too blurry to note anything. His mind wrestled with summoning with wings and was haunted that the demon crane was still on the attack. The beak came in again, but a gray arrow slammed into his armor. Just enough force to shift him out of the way.

Seconds from the ground, he threw up his arms over his head and prepared to let the shield take the brunt. Darkness. Like cannonballing into the pool, Phelian suddenly found himself in a thick liquid. There was still a sense of falling, but greatly reduced, Decelerated to a sinking feeling. Light returned as he plopped out of a big ball of darkness hanging over his head. Analia caught his eye as she looked him over. She gave him a nod and turned back to the approaching monster.

It was still alive.

Alive and standing. The demon crane approached them slowly, warily now. The avian had learned a lesson of pain. Humans were registered as dangerous now, but the question of food was still unanswered. The monster shifted from foot to foot, as if indecisive. It gave Phelian a view of the damage he did. That brought some relief. He was worried for an instant that his reckless endeavor had been pointless. Seeing the results disbanded that, though it did birth other concerns. This was a tough creature.

Turns out that metal bones were just the beginning of the metallic biology of the demon cranes. Through the shining rib bones were glinting organs. His attack had ripped muscle and flesh, but there was only minor damage to the metal body parts. Despite that, the monster walked unhindered. It wasn’t completely hopeless. There was plenty of bleeding and white fire burning inside. Time was on their side for this foe, though Phelian was determined to finish it off rather than play that tactic. There were more demon cranes than this one to worry about.

His party gathered around him. The explosion had allowed Hector to disengage and the rest had shifted to his landing zone. Together they stared down the approaching foe. Phelian reflected that a wounded beast was often more dangerous. It felt like the second phase of a fight was about to begin. The bird definitely appeared to be taking them seriously now. There was no more curiosity in its stance. Just a steady, livid approach.

“Let’s give it our all!” cheered Phelian. “It might be giant, but nowhere as scary as a Dead Thing. We’re way stronger now too. Here’s what to do! Analia and Allen, a big target means easy to hit! SO! Try out some new things, maybe you’ll find something that makes a dent. I believe in you guys! Amiyah, lots of power shots to the organs! It’ll hurt at the very least! You got this! Vivian and Kai, you’re moving up with me. We’re gonna bait some peaks and punish! Hector, you stay with our mages and ranger. Protect them if the birds gets aggroed and moves past us!”

“Alright! Let’s do it!”

He charged again, starting out slow this time so that his priests could keep up. The two of them ran on his left as they felt smaller and smaller as the giant bird got larger in their sight. It had lurched close.

“WHY exactly did you ask me to come with you?” growled Vivian. “I just stupidly followed. Maybe I have a weakness for listening to stupid men.”

With perfect honesty, the undaunted guardian answered, “I wanted to see your war face!”

Kai laughed, “Well it is a lovely sight. A warrior woman, raging across the battlefield. Beautiful!”

Both men shared a grin of mutual understanding. Vivian sighed heavily and stuck her mace in the air. She grumbled her chant to summon red and gold light. It formed into a maul and armor made of light. “Yes, I’m surrounded by idiot boys…”

“But, you love us,” preened the prideful priest. The wrathful healer didn’t dispute, just rolled her eyes.

A rapid fired line of gray arrows passed overhead. They each struck a different exposed organ in waves. Tests to find the weakest to exploit. Something vaguely like a liver proved susceptible. Amiyah showed no mercy. Next came the attacks from the mages. Darkness burst open next to the demon crane and sprang out into a legion of tentacles. There was no film of oblivion hissing in the air, Analia’s will simply tangled around the monster. Its movements dulled. Allen saved his move for when the three of them got in range. The avian monster’s neck reeled back for a strike, but a ball of red air screamed forward. The compressed air denoted sharp and in a wash of heat. It flinched and they got into position.

Phelian discharged white fire, formed as a beacon of light this time. He slammed sword to shield repeatedly to create an unignorable cacophony. The demon crane snapped at the projectiles and constraining darkness, but its eye was on the undaunted guardian. Malevolent anger built up into a glowing red light. There was a gunshot crack and the beak slammed down in a burst of blood-red power. The undaunted guardian held against it with a blazing shield, but was forced down to a knee.

Not wasting the opportunity, the two priests leaped into action. Kai roared forward in a streak of golden light. The blast knocked the beak off Phelian, causing the avian bird to stumble forward and bring its head close to the ground. The red maul swelled in size and came down like a comet. Vivian crushed the skull against the ground. It collapsed to the ground, sprawled out. A sword of white flames razed a streak down the side of the bird’s face.

The demon crane spasmed awake, head rising in a desperate jerk. A red light flashed from its remaining eye and scoured forward as a field of power. Phelian’s body went numb and stiff. All three of them couldn’t move. Red arcs of energy rolled over their bodies as the monster’s beak swung like a bat. Feeling returned as pain. A blow from the bird tossed them into the air. For the second time that day, Phelian flew uncontrollably away from the fiend. They landed ungracefully and stiffly tried to rise. The red light’s effect was still fading. Pain was the only solid sensation.

It got up after them on wavering legs, head tilted so the one eye could watch them carefully. Lazy, faltering steps in a race against the three of them trying to get up. A sense of finality for the incoming fight. The fire in Phelian’s chest was low, but it was stoked. He stomped to his feet. His stance was flawed and loose. Undaunted, he still stood to meet the monster with a grin. Today did not feel like one to die on. Not today at all.

A duet of voices cut through everything. Words of power rung in perfect harmony. Allen and Analia held hands, singing a spell of united force.

“I Am The Flames, “I Am The Shadows,

Fire Lights My Path, Darkness Is My Path,

We Seek Together, We Seek Together,

To Annihilate Our Foes, To Annihilate Our Foes,

Let Them Burn, Let Them Drown,

Flames of the Shadow Sea!”

Phelian watched the spell form in awe. The last time it had been used, he had been dead. Only the words of his party to describe it, and done so unwillingly. The subject ran too close to their own first deaths. Not everyone had his resilience towards that experience. Not to mention, the two mages had been unable to replicate the spell. He saw in them a strong fear it couldn’t be. That meant their words remained sparse on the subject. Far too sparse to prepare him for the wonder.

A gate of pure black heat appeared above the shuffling bird, unaware of its doom. First, there was an oily bulge of black liquid that caused the air around the substance to ripple. The moment the bump dripped, a flood burst through. Clinging oil poured over the demon bird and ever burning. It thrashed and screamed. Pacing wild and blind. The weak wings flapped uselessly to free itself from the searing sludge.

Its movements slowed, grew weak, and then the avian monster collapsed into a suffering mound of flaming goop.

“Huh, neat!” brightened Phelian. “That didn’t go too badly at all! What a nice day indeed.” He turned to look at the priests in time to see Kai grab Vivian and whip her around into a celebratory dance. It must have been his imagination that she had looked ready to slap him.