A blast of blue dragonfire lit the air above them as they fell. Feet first, they landed on the stones below and Calista deftly tucked herself into a tumble. Beside her, she heard Lefty cry out in pain. As she bounced to her feet, she found him rolling on the ground and clutching his leg.
“Dammit!” He shouted. “I twisted my knee!”
“Quit whining you big baby,” she grunted as she grabbed her partner by the shoulders and began to drag him. “We have to go or we’re going to either be surrounded by trolls or eaten by that thing.”
Behind them, the fire from Vevic’s breath weapon faded as the dragon let out a satisfied snort. Dragging the mage, Calista looked up to see Severin flying through the air, his robes ablaze as his arms flailed wildly. She didn’t kill him, but I bet that hurt.
Lefty rolled out of her grasp and dragged himself to his feet. Using his staff as a crutch, he hobbled beside her as they fled. Calista knew they didn’t have a chance of out-running the dragon. However, as they rounded a pillar and came into full view of the serpent, Calista reached into her pocket and pulled out her Voorlock totem.
“AVERNUM!” she shouted as she tossed the statue into the air.
Mid-air, the little wooden statue burst into full bird form. As soon as her Voorlock’s talons hit the ground, Lefty and Calista were climbing on. Just as Calista took the reins, the bird’s eyes caught what was coming behind it and went wide with fear. With a frightened hop, they were off and running.
The first blast of dragonfire struck right where they would have been had the Voorlock not taken off early. Vevic then swung her head with the blast as she sent a stream of white-hot flame pouring over the stone. The Voorlock, however, was just a little too fast. It ducked behind a pillar, jumped over an overturned petrified troll, stepped over a pair of dead bodies, and then accelerated into a full sprint.
Calista had never seen her Voorlock move so fast, with or without a rider, and now her steed was carrying not one but two of them. Was it because her steed had leveled up with her? Or was it because of the dragon behind them? Or both?
Calista didn’t have time to wonder as she looked back to see the first of the trolls running down the stairway while the fire giant followed close behind them. At the top of the stairway, the colossus spotted them running away and bellowed a challenge. Down on the first floor, with the trolls streaming in behind her, Vevic sent one more blast after them, realized her targets were out of range, and then did something totally unexpected. She took wing.
“I thought her wing was wounded?” Calista said.
Lefty shrugged, “We can steal potions off dead bodies. Why can’t she?”
“But … but … that’s not how NPCs in the game are supposed to work,” Calista argued.
Lefty shrugged again. “Currently, I don’t think anything is working like it's supposed to.”
“Fair point.”
Calista swerved her Voorlock to the right as Vevic sent down another blast of dragonfire. Cinder and smoke filled the air as their galloping Voorlock stayed just ahead of the destruction. The great, two-legged bird then ducked and slid to a halt to dodge the next blast as it nearly took off his head. Then, as Calista guided her steed into a U-turn, she looked up to see Vevic rising into the sky as she aimed at the black cloaked figure hiding high upon a ledge.
Calista reined her Voorlock to a halt and pointed. “Look! I think she’s going after Severin now.”
“Finally, I thought she’d never leave.” The mage then dismounted and drew himself up to face the horde of trolls running after them. He rolled back his sleeves as he took aim. “Alright, good news and bad news. Bad news is we’re still outnumbered. Good news is we’re finally out of the anti-magic field.”
He then raised his hands and bowed his head as he muttered his spell. A moment later, the stone before them rose to stretch all the way from the edge of the wall to the ledge that led to the lake of fire.
Lefty turned and dusted off his hands. “There! I think that should hold back a few trolls.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Calista didn’t feel so reassured. “Uhm … aren’t you forgetting ….”
The stone wall shuddered as something struck the other side. Lefty’s eyes went wide.
Calista extended her hand, “Quick, get back on!”
A second thundering impact shook the wall as Lefty climbed into the saddle behind her. As Calista reined the Voorlock around, a third blow struck the wall and shattered it. Bits of rock and mortar burst through as a section of the wall collapsed. Then a huge foot appeared atop the rubble as the fire giant stepped through the cloud of dust.
Lefty cried. “This isn’t fair.”
Calista gave her Voorlock a kick and the bird jumped over a pile of rubble and back out into the open. A burst of air traveled over their heads as the fire giant’s axe narrowly missed them.
“Well, Blake isn’t a ‘fair play’ kinda guy,” Calista said as they left the fire giant behind.
“Yeah, I’m getting that feeling too,” Lefty agreed. “When a guy can summon something over twice my level and that’s not even the worst monster in the room, it kinda falls into the unfair advantage category.”
Above, the air was lit with flame, fire, and ice as Vevic and Severin did battle. The dragon was circling the ledge and was blasting fire down on where the archmage had taken shelter. Severin, however, was not so easily defeated as he blocked every blast of flame with a wall of ice or stone. Over and over again, Vevic shot down a beam of fire, and over and over again, Severin summoned another wall or shield to block the blast.
Then something came whistling through the air at her and Lefty. Something big. Calista swerved her Voorlock left just in time as a huge piece of mortar struck the ground where they would have been. The rock hit the stone floor and rolled, leaving an impact crater the size of a small pothole. Great, the fire giant is throwing rocks at us.
They weaved between two pillars as another rock struck the second pillar sending mortar, rock, and dust flying in every direction.
“How long does a summon spell last?” Calista asked.
“Like an hour, maybe two,” Lefty answered.
“Why maybe two?”
“Because if the caster specializes in summoning things, he can extend the length of the spell.”
“Well shit.”
A third rock fell just short of them, struck the ground, and skipped past the feet of the Voorlock as they continued to flee. Arrows were now being loosed as the hissing missiles flew over their heads and struck the ground around them. Ahead, they could see the wall of the cavern looming before them.
“We’re running out of real estate,” warned Lefty.
Calista snapped, “I see that.”
At the wall, she reined her Voorlock to a halt and they both hopped off. “AVAENDUS!” she shouted and the bird again turned into a wooden statue in her hand. As she stuffed her mount back into her pocket, she watched Lefty cast another spell. This time, ice formed into a wall that wrapped itself around them.
Then the wizard asked, “Okay, what now?”
Before she could answer, another stone crashed through the wall of ice and struck the cavern wall. Shards of ice flew into their little enclave as beside them the stone rolled to the ground.
Calista looked around. “I don’t think we can hold out here.”
Lefty threw up his hands, “Agreed, but where?”
“I would have an idea, but I can’t see anything because of your wall.”
“I had to do something to block the arrows.”
“I know!” she said. “But …”
Then the ice wall shattered into a thousand shards as the fire giant’s great axe crashed through and they both dove in opposite directions as the massive axe head smashed into the floor between them. As the giant drew back his axe, they both found their feet and jumped out of the opening in the wall. They were greeted by the horde of trolls who were swarming in behind the giant. Calista cut two down with her Emberblade as a blast of frost and ice shot forth from Lefty’s fingertips and froze three others.
“There!” Calista pointed to the rope bridge where they had first sneaked into the cavern. The rope bridge was just to their left, so they ran laterally in front of the troll horde. As Lefty hobbled beside her, Calista readied her Emberblade. When a pair of trolls closed in on them, she caught the first troll in the neck with a backhanded swipe, while the second troll took a blast of acid to his face and fell, screaming, to the floor.
The thundering footsteps of the fire giant were right behind them as they ran out onto the bridge. This should at least lose the giant, Calista thought as the wooden planks clattered beneath her feet. Running as fast as they could with the trolls hot on their heels, they raced across the bridge. However, they were no more than halfway across when the bridge began to shake beneath their feet.
Lefty stumbled as he cried, “What’s going on?”
Grabbing the railing, Calista managed to look back. “It’s the giant!”
Three of the trolls spilled off the bridge and fell into the lava where they each landed with a soft thud. Calista watched as their bodies were slowly eaten by the lava. The shaking became more intense as the giant let out a terrible laugh. The colossus had a hand on each side of the rope and was shaking the bridge as hard as he could. The entire thing was practically flopping in the air as their bodies were being whipped up and down like rag dolls.
She had one chance. Jumping to her feet, Calista grabbed the rope with one hand while she raised her Emberblade with the other. With one mighty chop, her enchanted long sword severed all of the ropes and cut them loose from the giant’s end of the bridge.
Lefty screamed as the bridge swung through the air. Bubbling lava and hissing steam rose toward them and for a moment, Calista thought they were going to fall into the fire. Instead, they hit the cavern wall and Calista felt the breath leave her lungs.
A flash of blue fell past her. On instinct, she shot her arm out and caught Lefty by the hand. Hanging, the edge of his robes brushed the lava and caught flame. He screamed, kicking at his clothing as Calista struggled to hold on.
“Just grab the nearest plank, you fool,” she shouted.
The mage somehow gathered himself just enough to grab hold of a strip of wood as he pulled himself up.
“What now?” asked Lefty.
“We climb.”