I used to look at all the monsters like they were the scourge of our world, vile filth. I never thought to question the monster inside, who told me such things.
-excerpt from Iadaelus’ Journals.
Enix landed hard onto the body of the monster, another Gryphon. It cried out as he grabbed onto the base of its wings and stretched his legs. In his stone body, Enix had enough strength to tear them off. He finished it quickly with a single stop into the neck. He tossed the wings aside and limped away, his stone skin turning back.
How long had it been since he had left the Foundry? He didn’t know.
All that he knew was that the fight never ended.
Sure enough, he heard another screech. He rolled as a flurry of feathers and talons swooped past him, cutting open his shoulder. He winced but shook it off as he heard more wingbeats. Enix ran as shadows raced across the ground. Enix pumped his legs as best he could, feeling a shiver run down his spine as he heard the monsters approach.
He morphed quickly into his gelatinous form and rolled a few feet as talons stabbed into him and began to lift him off the ground. He felt two different monster’s talons stab into his body as they fought over him, but he felt little pain. He couldn’t sense how high he had gotten, but he turned back into his humanoid form, grabbing at the legs that had lifted him.
The Gryphon he was clinging to squealed in surprise. As the other one, slightly smaller, grabbed his legs, Enix concentrated and felt his body grow heavier. He felt the tug on his limbs as the Gryphons struggled to hold him. As the smaller one began to let go of his legs, Enix moved, wrapping his legs around the monster’s neck and turned to stone. Unfortunately, the Gryphon he had a hold of had managed to gouge its claws into his left shoulder. Enix felt a white-hot pain, followed by excruciating pain that spread over his arm.
He turned to stone before he could adequately assess what had happened and squeezed his legs together as hard as he could, holding them around the creature’s neck long after the snap and it's going limp. As he held it and the other Gryphon’s talons, the weight became too much for it as it tried its best to pump its wings. It began to descend rapidly and suddenly at an alarming velocity. Enix looked up to see its wings tucked in and acted quickly.
He let go of the dead one and heaved with his arms, realising that he couldn’t feel his left arm through the pain, nor the flexing of it. He saw it dangling, still gripping the Gryphon’s arm, torn out of its socket.
“Oh, you—“ Enix was interrupted as the Gryphon’s wings suddenly expanded outward and caught the wind. Enix plummeted and screeched in pain.
The dirt erupted as he landed hard. Enix gasped. The stoneskin helped block some of the impact, but he still had the wind knocked out of him.
He shook his head as he tried to push himself up, using his right arm. His shoulder was a gaping wound of mimicked boy parts. Any muscle and tendon was instead a tight coil of blue. Enix felt himself shudder at the sensation as the pain quickly left him.
He realised he still held something in his right arm and looked down. He had ripped the Gryphon’s arm apart and held its talons and wrist. Standing took a lot of effort, but he managed to do so. On leaden legs, he stepped away, hearing the creature wail in pain above him. He fell against a tree to sit and rest, trying to meditate through the pain.
He wondered if Ingot was alright. Enix gave up on his meditation, instead choosing to focus on his surroundings. Maybe if he recognised where he was, he could backtrack-
A loud and shrill screech pierced the sky. It was followed by another, and another, and two more, and finally, a last call.
Enix pulled himself up off the ground as the sound of wing beats drew closer. He looked to the tree behind him, at the roots, for any potential hiding place. When he didn’t find any, he resolved to run, stopping after a few paces when he saw the blood stains on his arm.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He couldn’t run. He couldn’t hide. He balled his hand into a fist as he readied for another fight, one in a long, long line of battles.
The flock of Gryphons circled above him. In the time he had fought, evaded and even killed them, he had learned of their behaviours. They favoured diving to catch their prey in their paws. If the prey survived, they would be lifted up and either mauled by their back legs and beak in the air or dropped from a high point. Often, both were done, the first to tire and bleed out the prey and the second to finish killing or breaking the prey apart.
Enix looked down at his missing arm, then to the arm of the Gryphon, he still held. He waved it around like a club, yelling incoherently at his stalkers. In response, they screeched back.
As if they cried out at the loss of a group member. Enix pushed the thought away. He couldn’t think like that anymore.
He rolled suddenly, avoiding a diving Gryphon and putting his back to another tree. He eyes the biggest one, easily a head taller than the rest, with a larger wingspan and thicker limbs. He watched as, instead of diving like the others, it landed gracefully on the ground before him, opening wide its beak and clicking.
This one didn’t want to hunt him; it wanted to kill him.
”Come on then.” Enix rolled, his skin turning to stone.
It lept at him as he drove his hand forward, jamming the torn Gryphon limb into its open beak. It retched in surprise as its momentum talked the boy into the tree, pinning him as the Gryphon growled and choked, its massive talons trying to bore through his skin and dig into the open wound. Thankfully, his new activation of the stoneskin had sealed over the wound. Eni roared, kicking t the beast as it held him up. It twisted its head, spitting out the limb and turned to stab at Enix’s face with its beak and disorient him by flapping its wings wildly.
Enix was dazed but held on, getting rocked back and forth. With effort, he tried to find his footing. When he couldn’t, he instead let himself drop. The Gryphon pounded on him as he planted his feet and pushed it back. If Enix could time it right-
There. The Gryphon moved back, intending to come at Enix with its claws. Instead, Enix Struck as the Gryphon rose, kicking out at its chest. Enix felt a satisfying crunch as the creature wheezed, retreating a few paces. Enix dropped his stoneskin, standing back up.
The boy stood panting as the creature circled him, coughing and wheezing. The large Gryphon was determined to see this through to the end.
With a choked cry, it leapt at him, and Enix Ares backed in response, winding his arm back and Striking when the typhoon sped at him in a blur. He wasn’t sure if he connected, as he was tackled back onto the tree by its sheer mass, and he blacked out.
When Enix came to, he found himself in his gelatinous form. He spread out his consciousness, utilising his ability to perceive without sight. A perceptual awareness created by sound instead of light. He was seeing the body of the massive Gryphon before him. Behind it were the bodies of the other Gryphons, with weapons sticking out of them. Two figures move around, removing the weapons stuck to the bodies. He felt them shuffle around. He counted six Gryphon bodies. Enix began to plan his escape, checking to see if he had enough energy.
”So, is it… He still alive?” He heard a voice ask as the figures moved closer to him. They were humanoid, one female, the other male.
”I doubt it. You saw that fight. I don’t think it could survive.”
”So, should we take it back with us? Hota might-“
”Sure, but we need to watch our energy. I don’t want us to fatigue too much with the amount of rations we have left. Let’s just hope Hota got us more food; I don’t want to send-“
”You have food?” Enix interrupted, morphing into his human form. The male turned around as he spoke but didn’t notice until Enix spoke. When he did, he whirled around, brandishing a spear as the female stared. Enix kept his eye on the spear. He would have kept quiet, but at the thought of them having more food, he couldn’t resist asking.
”It’s alive?”
”He is.” The female breathed out. “Who are you?”
”Enix.” Enix looked at her before turning back to look at the spear.
”You’re not human, are you?” The male asked.
He shrugged, still guarded.
“You’re not going to attack us, are you?” the female asked, her voice soft. Enix found himself oddly drawn to her voice. He looked to her, then back to the spear, not answering. She blinked, understanding, and held a hand to the spear, lowering it. The male allowed her.
”We saw your fight. You handled yourself pretty well.”
Enix kept silent again, only staring.
They looked at each other, an unspoken conversation passing between them.
“Would you care to join us?”