I fall flat to the ground, the fire rushing over my head instead of hitting me full-force. It’s close enough to singe my hair with the heat, but not actually catch myself on fire, fortunately. When the wave ends, I waste no time in pushing myself to my feet. As I hurriedly get out of the way of the salamander’s mouth, I glance around myself to see where my companions are. Bastet managed to dodge to the side, her speed and reactions serving her well, and looks unharmed. River’s another question.
Not so fast, he instead obviously hunkered down and protected his head with his arms. The scales on his shoulders, the back of his head, and the backs of his arms are blackened and cracked, but still mostly intact. Perhaps the trees were particularly vulnerable against fire? Or possibly it’s that his scales shrug off fire damage more easily. Either way, I don’t think I’d have done nearly so well in his position.
As for the bird, a quick glance upwards proves that she was quick enough to fly up and out of the way of the deluge of fire. She’s actually quite high above the battle. Absently, I wonder if she was able to catch the updrafts caused by the sudden heat. She’s already descending, though, diving towards the salamander’s head. After a brief pause caused by our collective disbelief at the fact that we’d survived the attack, we all spring into action.
As we’d planned, Bastet immediately goes for the salamander’s underbelly, raking at it with her claws and biting with her teeth. At points she even disappears underneath the creature – I hope that the thing doesn’t think of lying down or she’ll be easily squished under it’s mammoth bulk. Being as tall as a shire horse means it’s significantly wider than one, the proportions of a salamander being the way they are.
River runs at the salamander, his spear held at the ready. He stabs at its neck, at the join between shoulder and throat, and at its front leg. If he’s lucky, he’ll hit an important artery or trachea, but even if not, wounds there should impede its mobility. It’s a good choice of attack. He’s slower than usual, though, the burnt scales across his shoulders clearly paining him.
I dart in after him, keeping a wary eye on the salamander’s head as it snakes around. Laying my hand on his back, I send a wave of healing magic into his body. Before Lay-on-hands has had time to finish its work, the salamander’s mouth biting at me forces me to jump back. Even as I move, I feel the connection to the healing magic in River’s body linger for a few extra moments. Maybe it’s possible to… Not the time. The middle of a battle isn’t the right place to test new magical theories.
River’s shoulders look a lot better, the minimal damage caused easily healed. Plus, I’ve noticed that as Lay-on-hands has leveled through the Initiate stages, it’s been healing more points at once, for the same mana cost. Clearly my efficiency is improving. Ultimately, all that means is that River’s burns are almost healed and movement is clearly significantly easier and less painful for him.
River sends me a wave of gratitude down the link as I hurry out of range, returning to his job of stabbing. He’s aided when the bird drops down onto the salamander’s head, raking at its eyes and distracting it from the raptorcat threatening to disembowel it and the lizard-man making holes in anywhere he can reach that looks like it might be important. It would help if we knew where this thing’s heart is, but that’s going to have to be a trial and error approach.
Even as I pull out my bow and arrows and prepare to shoot, the salamander whips around to bite at Bastet. River takes advantage of that to start stabbing behind its foreleg, clearly hoping that maybe he can hit the heart or lungs from that angle. Bastet, of course, is too quick to be caught and the salamander closes its teeth on nothing. My heart still leaps in fear even as the sharp fangs click together a hair’s breadth from one of her wings. I shoot at the salamander, getting mixed results.
Where the arrow hits head on, it pierces, but not far: even with my increased Strength lending power to the arrow’s flight, the scales of the salamander are clearly heavily armoured. Where the arrow doesn’t land head on, it just skitters off, landing somewhere in the battle field. I keep going, though, aiming for the probable weak spots – I may get lucky and hit it in a vulnerable spot. I doubt my mace would have any better luck, frankly.
The bird takes advantage of the big lizard’s distraction to swipe at its eyes again and it bellows angrily as it swipes back, its own clawed paw twice as big as the bird’s whole body. It opens its mouth to once more fire its incinerating blast. That’s my cue. I shoot directly into its open mouth, my accuracy good enough to have a more than decent chance of hitting such a large target. Best-case scenario, I pierce its brain by going through the roof of its mouth. Worst-case scenario, I merely interrupt its fire-breathing.
The actual results are closer to the worst-case scenario than the best – the arrow hits the salamander clean in the mouth, piercing its tongue. It snaps its mouth shut on its own fire, flames leaking out of the sides of its mouth for a fraction of a second. Its eyes go wide – clearly that’s not a sensation that it appreciates. The attack also serves to make it a bit more wary of opening its jaws again for a short time, trying to use the weight of its head to knock into River instead of biting at him with its teeth. It also uses its claws more, steadying itself on three feet while using the last to hit out at my companions.
Without an easy target, I pepper it with arrows, aiming for points which I think might have the potential to cause damage. I shoot at its joints, at the soft spots at its jaw line, and at its eyes. The main problem is that my arrows simply don’t pierce deeply enough. My arrows pierce a few inches in at best, but when the skin is probably an inch or more thick to begin with, that doesn’t do much.
I need to get at its eyes or mouth again to do much. Even knowing that blinding it would remove any possibility of using Dominate, I'd rather that than it killing one of us. I get a chance when it opens its mouth to take a bite at the bird, her efforts at raking its eyes more annoying than effective, but serving their purpose as distraction, if nothing else. The angle isn’t great for me, but I manage to slip an arrow between its jaws again, piercing one of its gums. The salamander bellows once more, but this time in pain. It lowers its head to the level of its fore-paws, using one to scrub at its mouth in a clumsy attempt to get rid of the annoying pinprick. Not having the dexterity to pluck the arrow out, it doesn’t succeed in doing more than presenting a tempting target for my attempt to use Dominate.
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Making eye contact with it, I quickly activate my Skill. However, for the first time, I am so clearly out-classed, it isn't funny. The pressure on me is less like that of a garden hose and more like a fireman's. I'm blown backwards almost too quickly to register the failure of the Skill as the Battle of Wills shatters. I slump to the ground as the backlash of losing the Battle hits me even as the salamander bellows and takes a step forward, its angry eyes fixed on the being who dared to try to Dominate it. Fortunately for me, River rides to the rescue, the salamander's sudden focus on me giving him a good opportunity.
The lizard-man stabs at the base of its head, probably attempting to go for the brain like I was earlier. A flurry of movement on the other side of it reveals that Bastet is also trying to take advantage, going straight for its throat. The two coordinate so well that I wonder whether they’re able to use the Bond to communicate with each other without going through me. Or maybe they’re both just that good at reading combat.
The salamander reacts unpredictably, though. Its head snakes out quicker than expected and digs its teeth into Bastet before the raptorcat can jump away. My heart rises into my mouth as it lifts her into the air. It shakes its head and blood flies everywhere. I'm paralysed in agony, the seconds it takes for me to regain control of my limbs seeming like an eternity as one of my Bound is savaged.
Fortunately River’s once more there to help. Using his spear, he stabs into the base of the salamander’s neck as hard as he can. The wooden shaft sinks deeply in and the large reptile opens its jaws to bellow in pain again. Bastet falls out of its open mouth, landing heavily on the ground. Fear runs through me as she doesn’t make any effort to break her fall. Just then the weakness from my failed Dominate fades from my limbs. As soon as I can control them, I scramble to my feet and run over to Bastet's limp body.
My eyes are only on my oldest companion as I slide to a stop next to her. I slap my hand on her side and immediately channel healing into her. She’s alive, but only just. The blood is running out of her almost too quickly for my healing to compensate. I curse myself for being greedy - if I hadn't tried to Dominate the salamander maybe Bastet wouldn't have been so badly injured.
Master! River’s urgent tone grabs my attention. I look up to see the salamander’s jaws already aimed at us, the flicker of flame already kindled at the back of its throat. I know instinctively that any more damage will be the end of my loyal companion, my friend. My family member.
I don’t think, I just act. With a leap fuelled by desperation and the strength of an Olympic jumper, I propel myself forwards, grabbing onto the salamander’s head and yanking it forcibly off course. I almost manage to get my body out of the way of the fire that jets out of its mouth. Almost.
Flames lick at my side like white-hot tongues, each pass singeing and charring my flesh. My armour is little protection; my other clothes even less. My grip loosens involuntarily and I drop from the head like a stone, quickly rolling to put out the fire that’s caught on my garments as much as to get out of the path of the enraged reptile. I send a quick Lay-on-hands through my system to at least start to deal with the large portion of my torso which has just been grilled. My pain threshold raises to a new high: this hurts like nothing else has yet.
I’m screaming loudly, something I only realise a moment later. I manage to cut off the loud noise, but it’s done its job to attract the attention of the salamander back onto me. Healing. I need healing. Bastet needs it even more. I don’t even know how my other two companions are doing. But how can I do anything when it’s taking all my strength and willpower to just avoid the attacks of the pissed-off salamander. A creature which is bleeding from innumerable wounds, but still seems as powerful as it was when we first started fighting it. Worst of all, it seems to have its own healing power since even the wounds that River made in its neck don’t seem as bad as they were originally.
Healing.
An idea comes to mind, a thought I had half-played with at odd times since I saw the message. Do I risk it? Do I have a choice? My eyes narrowing, I wait for my moment. It comes when the salamander once more tries to bite at me. I roll out of its path, managing to avoid it in such a way that I’m in a perfect position to carry out the rest of my plan when it buries its teeth in the dirt. Grabbing onto its neck with arms and legs, I’m lifted into the air when it raises its head once more.
Of course, the salamander isn’t too happy about having a hanger-on and starts trying to shake me loose. River seems rather confused about my strategy, sending me a questioning feeling down the Bond. I’m a little busy, though, unable to reply with more than a desperate need for help as I cling onto the salamander’s neck with a death-grip.
At the same time, I send healing magic into the flesh I’m holding onto. Of course, I’m not actually trying to help the creature, and so instead of just letting it loose to heal the numerable wounds we’ve left, I keep a tight control on the magic. Concentrating isn’t easier, though when the salamander’s attempts to throw me off reduce, it becomes a little easier.
Tightly gripping onto the magic, I guide it up through the neck and into the brain. There I direct it to make the vessels grow. I want them to swell until they burst, causing an aneurysm. A fatal one, preferably.
The healing magic bucks against my hold on it. Not because it refuses to harm instead of heal, but because there’s some sort of blockage, obstacle. I grit my teeth and focus harder, pushing with my twenty-four stat points of Willpower. I refuse to entertain the possibility of failure. Bastet needs me now and so this creature needs to go down yesterday.
The barrier or obstacle or whatever it was resists, but I just keep pushing with the faith of the desperate. Maybe the problem is that I haven’t put enough magic into this. I channel more, and more, throwing it all at the blockage. It flickers, and then suddenly fails with a rush. Unhindered, my magic saturates the salamander’s brain, in an instant causing innumerable blood vessels to grow and burst.
I drop heavily to the ground as the muscle I’m holding onto suddenly loses all power. I don’t spare the dead monster more than a single glance, and that’s only to make sure that it is truly dead. The blood leaking out of its staring eyes and mouth are enough proof for me. Pushing myself to my feet, forcibly ignoring my side screaming at me, I half-run, half-stumble over to my raptorcat friend.
“Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead,” I croak under my breath as I fall at her side.