13 – Crimson Skies

Kornos was the better shot, so that meant I was the one who would lure out the bird. I wasn’t excited about having to run from an aerial apex predator. In fact, I was terrified. I had only recently been able to make out just how large the Crimson King was, and it far exceeded my expectations. If it wanted to, it could easily scoop me up in a single claw and carry me away.

I was scared, but I found the courage to step up and carry out my role. My future, and my family’s future, demanded it. My heart beat quickened, adrenaline beginning to trigger prematurely. Breathe in, hold it, and then breathe out. Nerves steadied, I made my way onwards.

We were already within its territory, so we wasted no time. We leapt, falling skyward, higher within the Anomaly. The bird was far away, as we had waited for it to fly as far away from the lower reaches as possible so that we might have time to search for a proper battlefield. Any preparations we could make before being spotted would increase our chances of survival.

When I had first proposed the weapon, the poisoned arrows, Kornos voiced his disgust at the cowardice of tagging the creature and running until it died. He wanted a glorious fight against a strong foe, something straight out of a story. I wanted to stay alive. We argued back and forth, eventually settling on a compromise. Kornos would tag the beast with an arrow, but would not run away. Somehow, he convinced me to go along with his insane plan to fight it head-on after poisoning it. Maybe it was divine charisma or something? He had just seemed so confident at the time that everything would work out…

Anyways.

Since he wanted to fight so badly, I had to make another weapon. A dagger wouldn’t be long enough to do any real damage in this case.

Kornos, upon my request, borrowed my humming dagger and carved out a long, wooden rapier. He really is quite good at that, I thought to myself as I watched him work.

Something interesting I discovered during the process of infusing the rapier – and yet another thing the Department had not taught us – was that thaums of similar nature could be combined to enhance that nature. In this case, two thaums that shared concepts of sharpness and cutting were combined to reinforce those concepts. Extra sharp, if you would. When I tested it against an unfortunate tree, it sliced through it almost effortlessly. Though, I could have sworn I felt the infusion diminish in some capacity, even if only by a fraction of a fraction. Weren’t infusions supposed to be permanent unless specified otherwise? It was entirely possible that I was simply imagining the discrepancy. Something to look into later.

The finishing touch was a wrapping of skychaser hide around the hilt, infused to enhance grip strength and reduce hand strain. The result was a nearly weightless sword that could score rock without dulling its edge.

Kornos made himself a staff, which I infused with toughness and increased weight. His enhanced physique let him twirl it around without breaking a sweat. Birds tended to have weak bones, therefore a heavily weighted weapon, with momentum from say, falling several hundred feet, could very easily crush right through any skeletal structure they might possess.

I took stock of our equipment and came to a conclusion.

We really, really needed proper equipment. We were running around like savages, hitting things with sticks and stones. What I wouldn’t have given for a gun. Depths, even just having a set of actual armor, leather or otherwise would have prevented almost every injury we had gotten thus far. A proper Highdiver crew had all their equipment ready before heading into an Anomaly, only extraordinary circumstances required crafting entirely new sets of weapons or armor in the field. Leviathans below, nearly all expeditions were planned with foreknowledge of what challenges awaited them within the Anomaly. Dimitri might have already scouted this Anomaly and would have had me working under their senior thaumaturgist to infuse gear that would have allowed them to traverse this rift and survive whatever threats they might face. They wouldn’t have had to outfit the whole crew with stupidly dangerous to use boots just to traverse islands. A properly trained and outfitted marksman could have sniped the bird from outside of its territory – probably, with practice and a lot of skill.

I shook my head. There was no use dwelling on what could have been. There was an obstacle in our way that needed to be put down. The farther we could travel into an Anomaly, the higher the quantity and quality of thaums we could find, and therefore the better chance I had at paying off my debt by the self-imposed deadline.

The deadline that was never actually agreed to. The one I could only hope that was honored.

Well… I doubted Dimitri would turn down the axia, especially if I overpaid enough.

“Vin?”

Also, there was the fact that I stole a boat, not to mention the Anomaly charts I swiped from Dimitri. Hold on, had I told him I was planning on giving them back? Uh oh.

A hand on my shoulder broke my train of thought. Kornos was giving me a worried look. Damn it, I kept spacing out.

“Sorry, just thinking about stuff,” I told him. “It’s fine, my head’s in the game.”

“If you say so…” He wasn’t convinced, but he could tell there wasn’t much point in pushing the issue.

***

“There it is,” I whispered to Kornos as I pointed, mindful of my movements such that I didn’t rustle the bushes we had hidden in. The Crimson King could, most likely, still spot us with ease, but we weren’t about to throw away any potential advantage. Except for Kornos’s inane obsession with creating his legend by fighting a giant predator head on with very little preparation or proper equipment, when an easier, safer alternative was available to him.

Ok, well, I wasn’t entirely against the idea. Actually, I had conjured up a scene in my mind where Kornos and I pulled our boat up to the docks, head of the Crimson King impaled on the mast of the Whizzing Arrow, causing a wave of murmurs and maybe even cheers to spread throughout the crowd…

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KREEE!

The ear-piercing shriek of the crimson terror made me clap my hands over my ears to block out the almost painful sound. Shit, this stupid bird was loud.

It had spotted us, eyes locked on to our position. New prey, new morsels to sample. Wings flapped, adjusting its course.

“It’s building up speed,” I noted. I was already moving through the outskirts of the large clearing, trying to limit its line of sight. “It’s sling shotting around the islands.”

Kornos was heading in the opposite direction, maintaining slightly better cover than I was. The goal was for me to draw its attention initially while Kornos hit it with a poisoned arrow. Then, he would take over as the center of focus while I carved it up when I could. The poison would weaken and distract it, which would make the fight significantly less dangerous.

It was seconds away from appearing over the edge of the island. I picked up the pace. Standing within the impact zone would be a very bad way to start off the fight.

“Kor-”

I was cut off as a blur smashed into the ground where we had been standing seconds before. The whole island rocked, and the sky shifted – no, the whole island had tilted from the impact – and I was nearly thrown to my feet. Out of the corner of my eye, Kornos seemed to have faired better than I, though not by much.

A thought struck me. Something with weak bones should not have been able to survive an impact that severe. Which meant this thing was strong, far stronger than it had any right to be.

My legs locked up, refusing to budge. Hands trembled. My heart beat in my chest like a caged animal. I was terrified, all bravado and confidence drained from my system. I began to doubt Kornos’s words of assurance that we would survive. This was not an enemy to test oneself against. It was a monster, an aberration born within an aberration.

Glancing over, I saw a sight that knocked the wind out of my sails. Kornos, arrow knocked, bow pulled taught, had gone insane. That was the only way to describe his expression. It was manic, gleeful in a way that no sane man should be in this situation. Not a hint of worry, only pure thrill. He was smiling.

How could he be smiling when faced with such awesome might? Standing not even a hundred feet from him was a beast of such strength it could crush boulders between its talons and fly at speeds that boggled the mind. How the fuck could a teenager not be pissing their pants in fear in this situation?

Kornos, apparently. Kornos Ashaollo, son of a Leviathan, and future legend in the making.

“Ha!”

What was that noise? Oh, that was me. I was laughing. Kornos’s absurd nature was infectious, so it appeared. The sheer audacity, the balls on that kid, to stare death in the face and practically vibrate with excitement. How else could one react to such a sight? It was pure comedy!

Matching my sudden mirth, my lips curled up in a wry smile of their own, and a relieved chuckle escaped them. The tension vanished, and like switching gears, my whole body was suddenly primed for the hunt.

For this was a hunt, not a fight. For perhaps the first time in its life, the Crimson King was not the predator, but the prey. Our prey.

Kornos let loose the arrow, and it flew true, sinking deep within its belly, causing the creature to let loose yet another horrid shriek, this time one of pain. The Crimson King turned and glared at my friend, twitching slightly as the poison coursed through its system, no doubt causing terrible internal burns and torturous pain.

Before it could retaliate, I took advantage of its momentary distraction and leapt, spending a bit of stamina through my boots to empower my legs, taking off at speed towards the avian. I flew through the air, and as I passed between its shoulder blades, I struck out with the rapier, slicing into its back. It let out yet another pained noise as I soared past the treetops, then the edge of the island, though still within its gravity field.

I began to fall back towards the island, though I skipped across the underside, empowering my legs with the slightest amount of strength to maintain my momentum as I circled back to the battlefield as fast as possible.

***

Vincent sure is full of surprises, I thought to myself. That little stunt he pulled wasn’t part of the plan, though to be fair, we hadn’t exactly planned anything beyond ‘hit it with arrow, whack it until it dies.’

I threw down the bow and picked up my staff. Vincent had whined about the lack of proper equipment, but I knew he hadn’t been genuinely upset, he had been venting. Frankly, I was content with what Vincent had made for us. Never underestimate the force multiplier that is a thaumaturgist, especially a talented one like Vincent.

Mirroring my friend, I launched myself straight at the Crimson King. Infused wood met brilliant feathers of scarlet and purple and gold with a crunch as the staff smashed into its flank, crushing flesh and bones. It staggered away, catching itself before it tumbled over. I took the opportunity to put some distance between us, staying out of range of its wickedly sharp beak and talons.

The Crimson King turned and met my gaze with its own of hatred and pain. It squawked and hopped towards me. I had to shield my face from the dust and debris kicked up from its flapping. That nearly costed me. I threw myself to the side as it came down, talons clawing at the ground where I had just been a moment prior.

Not a moment later, I had to swing my staff to smack away an incoming beak. The bird was a lot heavier than I had thought, and I only just barely managed to divert its course.

For a split second, the bird was preoccupied with repositioning, it was not in a position to attack. I had just a moment to decide my next course of actions. I could press the attack, or I could retreat and try to take a more cautious approach. I immediately threw out the latter, as it would give the bird the opportunity to take flight and either flee or make another dive at us. So, that only left one option – continuing the aggression.

Vincent chose that moment to reenter the battle. He appeared as a blur, moving faster than even I thought I could handle, and hit the bird feet first.

There was a muffled boom and an explosion of feathers.

Vincent had done something insane, and brilliant. And stupid. Very stupid. But still brilliant.

I rushed forward and caught him, as he had seemingly lost consciousness temporarily.

I dragged him back, away from the dead creature, and gave him a once-over. He seemed fine, still breathing and heart still beating, but he was down for the count, for the moment.

Just to be sure, I went over and examined the bird.

Yup, definitely dead. Its heart – or what I assumed was its heart – had exploded. The ribcage had practically disintegrated, and the rest of its organs were no more than a slurry.

I whistled. He really did a number on this one, huh?

Then I fell back, laying on my back, staring up at the sky/ground. I laughed. Emotions poured out of me. Pride, tension, exuberance, panic, terror, triumph. Tears rolled down my face. I’d never admit it to Vincent, but I had been scared. Yes, I had also been excited, and that excitement had been genuine, but it didn’t suppress the terror I had felt when I had realized we had underestimated our foe. Being brave didn’t mean you weren’t afraid, or even that the fear was lesser. It just meant you could act despite the fear.

And I was better for it. I wanted to be known as a fearless explorer, as a grand slayer of beasts and discoverer of alien treasures. I wanted, no, needed to earn the genuine respect and adoration of the masses. And I hadn’t let some stupid bird get in the way of that.

I let out a breath, regaining my composure. Couldn’t rest yet, there were things to take care of first, and this wasn’t a safe place to get some shuteye. I had no idea what the reaction to killing an apex predator like this would be, but if one thing was sure, it was that no beast would pass up a meal like this.

I went to wake Vincent.