A dark, red rage rose from the depths of Shaya’s soul, demanding to take over—demanding blood for blood. Gritting her teeth against the pain and steeling herself against the blood rage, Shaya twisted and slammed the monster into the wall. She pinned it against the stone off its hind legs, haft still jammed into its mouth. Its flailing intensified, all of its claws going wild against her. With a grunt, she headbutted the creature’s snout, and while it was stunned smashed her elbow into its exposed throat.
She huffed, letting the gasping Cinwolf drop to the ground and then delivering a coup de grâce to it with her halberd’s spear tip. The scrabbling of more claws on stone drew her attention to another side passage, where three more monsters were rushing towards her team, illuminated by the flames flickering around their maws.
Destroy them, said a dark voice in her mind, turning her vision red.
No, I need to think fast. Think clearly.
She rushed towards the wolves and the passage they were about to emerge from, roaring as she did so. That got the incoming enemies to focus on her.
“Shaya, what are you doing?!” Lorral called, worried.
Yes! Destroy them! Hatred pumped through her, drowning her thoughts.
Side shaft’s too tight to swing a polearm, the giant woman thought through the haze as the wolves drew closer. I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.
Wood splintered as she slammed her shoulder into the decaying supports that held up the ancient mine shaft. The cave groaned as the roof threatened to collapse after untold years of shifting earth.
But it did not collapse.
“Gods damn it!” she growled.
DESTROY THEM.
Shut up! she screamed back at the rage overtaking her. Acknowledging it—hating it back—was like throwing oil into a fire, and she felt her blood boil as the rage flared within her. You cursed piece of spit! Why can’t you even be useful?!
Fire shot towards her and she ducked out of the way, heat blistering her skin as the flames burst against the freshly damaged support. Before she could stand, the lead Cinwolf lunged towards her, jaws open. Without room to manoeuvre her polearm, she dropped it outside of the shaft and took a different approach.
She lunged towards the creature, shocking it with her ferocity and unexpected strength. One hand clamped over its spineless maw while the other grabbed it by its soft, unprotected underbelly. Roaring with rage, she used the creature’s momentum to twist, rise, and slam it into the opposite wooden support with a loud crack.
With the few wits she could muster, Shaya slid back from the mine entrance as the cave roared in response and then collapsed on all three of her attackers. The creatures howled for only an instant before the weight of the world dropped on them, cutting off their flanking manoeuvre and their lives.
Shaya covered her face as dust and dirt exploded out from the collapsed passage, but it didn’t help. Her anger sputtered as she coughed, all while the battle continued behind her. She forced her panicked breathing to slow, and that focus let her bring her thoughts back under control.
Picking up her halberd, she scanned the other passages for signs of movement. Finding none, she turned back towards the main cavern.
There was more work to be done, and her friends needed her.
Shaya leaned against her halberd for support, looking down at her wounds. The claws had only scored shallow cuts into her chest between the protection offered by her magic light-forged armour and brigandine, but the monster managed to rake across her less armoured calf and blood soaked through her padded armour there. She leaned her weight on that leg and winced, but the leg held her fine otherwise.
“I’ll walk it off,” she muttered, moving back towards the front line. Her blood rage was already subsiding, her vision returning to normal.
Good riddance.
Krebo, Gazno, and Pelark had managed to fell another two Cinwolves, and the wounded gryphon another one, leaving only six left and their Ur. Four of those monsters harried the gryphon, fighting with even greater caution than before, and the other two nipped at Krebo and Gazno. Shaya looked past the immediate combat and saw the Ur-Cinwolf still holding down the gryphlet, watching the combat unfold with eyes far keener than those of any animal.
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“The tide’s turning, we should be able to save the gryph—”
The Ur unleashed an ear-piercing howl that heated the air around them like the bellows of a furnace—yet chilled them to the bone. The mutant bounded off the gryphlet, slashing at it with its claws, and rushed the enraged gryphon. The gryphon swiped at it with one taloned leg, but it dodged backwards with serpentine alacrity and lunged back in. Its jaws latched onto the gryphon’s other front leg and bone crunched beneath the force of its bite, causing the gryphon to shriek in pain and rage.
“Bastard!” Shaya roared, and felt her heart beat like a war drum, thundering in her head. The blood rage rose again, drowning out the unnatural fear she felt at the monster’s roar and threatening to take hold of her again.
No.
Not now.
Not ever.
I can think my way through this.
I will think my way through this.
Shaya took a deep breath, drawing in what Amber aether she could with her meagre skill. As the aether entered her, she again felt its warmth and surety spread through her body—a steady and firm support she wished she could hold forever. It pulsed and glowed in her eyes like a rich, golden halo and she felt her pride swell, forgetting about her rage. She shook her head to focus, fighting the Amber’s euphoria.
“Friends!” she barked. “Shake it off! Feint in, then pull them all back from the gryphon! I need them to breathe fire on us again. This isn’t over!”
Krebo shook off the fear and grunted. He smacked Gazno with his mace, snapping him out of the fear that gripped him too. With their wits about them, both roared and charged the monsters, who danced back and around them like no average wolf could. The rest of the Cinwolves peeled off the gryphon to take advantage of the squad breaking their defensive formation and leaving themselves exposed from all sides.
Shaya and Pelark stepped out as well, harrying the beasts that tried to get around the front-line but failing to land any meaningful blows. The archers fired down the centre, discouraging any Cinwolves trying to break through the middle and taking shots at the Ur. Their arrows skipped off its heavy bristles, but they managed to graze a number of the others that stayed in their line of fire for too long.
“Pull back!” Shaya shouted and the squad followed the order without hesitation, though Pelark was now limping due to the bristles in his leg. She continued to draw in aether, the light shining from her eyes and even radiating from her body. She felt invincible, unstoppable, and managed to withdraw only with great reluctance.
“Phaedra Amon!” she invoked. “Bind my enemies!”
As they returned to the tighter formation within the tunnel, Shaya used the Amber within her to sculpt the energy into the shape of her spell formula like a potter shaping clay. The spell was one of the more complex ones she knew, and she hadn’t practiced as much as she wanted. Because of its complexity, the spell took up much of her remaining circuits, so she wouldn’t be able to cast any additional spells until dismissing either her armour or the spell she was about to cast. After several tense seconds of tracing the spell, Shaya channelled the rest of her aether into the formula to unleash the spell—just in time.
One of the Cinwolves inhaled deeply, its throat and belly glowing with the fire it held within, stoking it.
Just as planned.
Phaedra Amon manifested behind Shaya, resplendent in glowing armour and pointing her large crystal sword. Shaya finished her spell and conjured a small chain of light. With a flick of Shaya’s wrist, it shot from her esper’s blade like an arrow, wrapping around the snout of the Cinwolf ready to unleash its blast. Shaya closed her fist and the chain crushed the beast’s mouth shut, its eyes widening in horror as it struggled against the chains, the fire continuing to build within them.
“Take cover!” Shaya crouched behind Krebo and Gazno as they locked shields, lifting an arm to cover her head and seeing the others do the same around her. She channelled her aether into the spell, willing it to remain in existence, but as the aether drained from her, the sense of invincibility was gone as well, leaving only a cold sense of vulnerability.
The Cinwolf exploded, Shaya feeling the boom more than hearing it. Sharp bristles and bones flew through the air like shrapnel, tearing apart the aberrant’s three closest pack mates and peppering the further two. The shrapnel struck Krebo and Gazno’s shield wall, but plenty more got past it and around them. Krebo hissed in pain as a large chunk of bone clipped his helmet and Gazno grunted as bristles managed to dig into his exposed foot. The others took only superficial injuries, grazes and a few nettling bristles to arms and legs. The roaring fire caught the remaining two Cinwolves and they howled in agony as parts of them were set alight. The raging fire splashed against Krebo’s ward, which used up the last of its energy and flickered out of existence.
“Finish those three off,” Shaya said, rising and drawing in more Amber. “I’ll distract the Ur so it can’t finish off the gryphon.”
“Shaya, no!” Krebo called.
She ran up the wall of the cave and leapt over her friends to charge the Ur. The smell of burning flesh and fur struck her as she approached, the monster’s flame-filled mouth ripping and tearing at the gryphon’s back leg, forcing it to the ground with a loud thud and enraged scream. Up close, the amount of blood pouring from the gryphon’s wound made Shaya’s heart sink even through the Amber’s confidence.
Before the Ur-Cinwolf could press its advantage, Shaya roared and lunged at it. It dodged away from her strike and the gryphon in one fluid, sinuous motion, spitting a bolt of flame at her. The sudden attack surprised her, but she managed to roll out of the way of the searing projectile, which splattered on the wall and sizzled as the stone melted beneath it. She came up with a wide, defensive sweep of her polearm, hoping to catch the Ur with it. The giant wolf leapt over her strike and spun in the air, whipping her across the face with its long tail.
Gasping from the agony of hundreds of little barbs digging into her exposed skin, Shaya tried to shake off the disorientation brought on by the burning pain.
Focus! she screamed into her mind.