I lunged for the nearest Child of Aurum, the one wearing silk, but moved into a roll when an enormous spear plunged deep into the earth in front of me. I was right, Talen had someone else hiding in the shadows. I summoned a quick shield around myself and closed the distance between myself and the silken warrior. They brought up their halberd and swung at me with a horizontal swipe, but I dodged beneath it and stabbed up at her neck. She just barely managed to dodge and my sword wound up above her face, so I brought the hilt down onto her nose. There was a crunching noise and she stumbled back, sweeping with her halberd to gain space. Before I could close it another spear buried itself near me, but this time it was too far away for me to bother dodging.

As I fought I watched Stone, Hrig, and Kyren take on the one wielding two bastard swords. Stone and Hrig had closed the distance quickly, I assumed to keep the spear thrower from risking hitting his companion, and I noticed a shimmering bubble around Kyren. Hrig’s tattoos were glowing as she swung her axe and she’d already left several deep cuts on her opponent. Meanwhile, Stone was using hammer blows to force changes in his footing and stance in order to keep him from gaining momentum, and Kyren was flinging bolts of energy at him every time he managed to break away.

I summoned a second multi-sword into my other hand and began another round of attacks focusing on Talen. The spears had stopped and that let me give my full attention to the fight in front of me. Talen was wielding a slender silver blade with a coppery edge and making lightning fast strikes at me while his ally did her best to keep me pinned with her halberd. She stabbed at me with it and I caught the halberd with my blade, pulling her and it in front of me in order to block one of Talen’s blows, but his sword glided through its haft, my shield spell, and my armor like there was nothing there. His sword was edged with elyrium.

As we continued my opponents gained an edge and I started to have large rents carved in my armor. The halberdier had made a few thrust at me with the remaining haft, but gave up when it broke against me, switching to using large claws I hadn’t noticed before, and I found her close combat abilities to be much more difficult to defend against.

As I fought I began to repair myself, drawing on my internal reserves. Talen’s blade continued to cut me, but as it did, it began producing fewer and fewer tears and getting caught on my armor. Soon my steel body was laced with lines of gold from the elyrium I was drawing from the bars I’d stored for Kyren. Talen’s every hit was just making me stronger.

As I started to take the upper hand, pushing Talen and his ally back, I noticed that the man dual wielding the bastard swords had started to push Stone and Hrig back toward Kyren, and he seemed to be focused on reaching her. Before anyone could press an advantage though there was a crash as three figures slammed into the town square from a nearby rooftop. There was a man with golden eyes twirling a spear, being pushed back by a woman wielding a rapier and a dwarf with long metal claws. Dorsia and Jade had joined the fight. It looked like I had allies of my own.

They looked a bit worse for wear than either myself or my other companions, but they’d held their own against a Child of Aurum and had managed to keep spears from slamming into me so I took that as a victory in their favor. They joined Hrig and Stone in protecting Kyren and the bastard sword wielding child of Aurum fell in with his spearman brother.

I managed to break through the Daughter of Aurum’s defence, slamming a sword into her side, managing to push it through her scales, before immediately dismissing the blade to let her blood flow freely from the wound. Talen slashed at me before I could follow up, but I let his blow hit me and filled myself in with another line of elyrium. Their blows were rattling my essence, but that became less possible as the golden lines across my armor grew.

I heard a cry from behind me and I saw that Dorsia had managed to drive her rapier deep into an axewound Hrig had left on the dual wielder. The spearman went into a rage, but lost his footing as gold chains sprung up and wrapped around his legs. The silken Child of Aurum broke off from me and let out a large stream of fire, sending my companions reeling and giving the spearmen time to break free of his bonds.

That left me and Talen fighting one another alone. I began attacking with empty hands, summoning blades just before they’d strike Talen and then desummoning them to repeat the process. It distracted him and moved him back, forcing him to watch my every movement. Occasionally I wouldn’t summon a sword, but he’d dodge thinking I would and I’d manage a quick punch or kick. I could see that the fight was wearing on him, I’d managed no real blows on him, but his allies were losing in spite of their incredible strength and I was much more equipped to fight him than I had been after I’d been injured by Caedus. Talen wasn’t used to fair fights, and it showed.

He made a mistake and I pressed my advantage, closing in for what I hoped would be a fatal blow. Suddenly, his cloak whipped around and slammed into me hard, just under my faceplate, sending me flying toward my companions, crashing into Stone. Talen’s cloak unfurled and I realized that it wasn’t a leather cloak, but rather large powerful wings that sprouted from him. They started to beat and Talen began turning around, attempting to make a run for it.

I tapped Stone’s boots. “Sorry, don’t try to use these for the rest of the fight.”

I rolled up and let my companions continue their fight while I ran straight for Talen. He was starting to gain altitude, rising up past the nearest building and starting to fly over it toward the gate. I made it to the building and leapt up onto the roof, the enchantment from Stone’s boots allowing me a solid twelve foot vertical. A few more steps to gain momentum and I leapt again this time landing on Talen’s back. He fell a bit, but rather than landing he angled himself upward and started carrying us high into the air as quickly as possible, trying to shake me loose from him. I shifted the tips of my gauntlets into claws and drove them deep into Talen’s shoulders. He screamed, but continued to fly us higher, jerking and twisting the whole way as he did so.

I started clawing at his back, tearing into him, but suddenly I went from tearing out flesh to only creating sparks. Golden scales began spreading from his back and slowly covered him from head to toe. He dove, directing us toward the forest. Wind whistled by as the ground came closer and closer to us and at the last minute he curved upward. We slammed into the treeline and from there it became a test of endurance. Branches and whole trees broke as we crashed into them, when we started to slow down Talen began rising back up into the air. The slowdown allowed me to pull myself up and wrap my arms around his golden neck. He put on a burst of speed to launch himself into the air and soon we were even higher than we’d been before, almost reaching the clouds. I started to squeeze, putting as much pressure on his throat as I could, but unlike Donyin, Talen didn’t panic. He simply stopped flying, and let us fall, with me underneath him.

I held firm, not letting up and continuing to squeeze as hard as I possibly could. I solidified the shield I’d put up, and extended the boots enchantment to my entire body, hoping to absorb the fall. We landed in the middle of the bonfire, sending embers flying across the town, and cracking the earth. I held on, still not giving an inch. Talen began to tear across my arms with newly formed talons, but I swiftly replaced the missing steel with elyrium and squeezed harder, adding in the pressure from the shield spell to crush his neck by a few more millimeters. We rolled through the flames, as we struggled and Talen’s wings beat trying in vain to shake or move me. Gradually his will to resist faded, and I felt him draw his last breath.

I stood slowly, climbing out from beneath him and stood over him, looking down. His eyes flashed open as a white hot burst of flame erupted from it. I could feel parts of me melt, but I summoned a blade and drove it through his open mouth and through the back of his head. I saw pure hatred in his eyes as his body burst into flame. Another soul added to Aurum’s growing collection.

I turned toward my friends. They had acquitted themselves similarly well. The bodies of the three they’d faced were also burning up in intense heat. We’d won the battle, but a part of me felt that by doing so we’d quite possibly strengthened Aurum himself. Still, it made more sense to focus on the tangible threat his children were at the moment rather than the existential one he represented.

I walked over to them. The town had mostly avoided catching fire, but a few townsfolk had made their way out of their homes in order to put out what small fires remained. They gave us all a wide berth as they did so.

Stone was clutching his side, and Kyren was healing him. Dorsia was on the ground as well, seemingly after having been healed, with Jade holding a waterskin to let her drink. Hrig was leaning heavily against her axe.

She gave me a once over and smiled. “I like a man with scars.”

I looked myself over. I was now criss crossed with threads of elyrium across my entire body. I found that I rather liked how it looked too, though Hrig was right in calling them scars.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked.

“Aye, lad,” said Stone lifting himself up and wiping the blood away from his now healed side.

Dorsia gave a thumbs up, but didn’t move aside from that, and Jade just nodded. The fight had been hard, but this was likely the one group of people on the continent that could manage to survive it.

Stone moved over to Talen’s body, took a small gold coin and tossed it into the flames. He let out a heavy sigh and returned to us. At our questioning looks he simply said, “Still owed him something, from a long time ago.”

I nodded somberly. It was important to remember that before Aurum’s influence many people had been harmless, or at least much less dangerous than they’d become. Stone had described Talen as a middle man when he’d last seen him. With Aurum’s influence he’d become a Duke, a lord of the underworld that ruled with an iron fist and ruthless methods. Donyin had been a beggar, Vash captain of a single ship, and Rubrus a hedge mage's apprentice. Aurum made them more powerful, but he also made them selfish and terrible. I shuddered at the thought of what Caedus was becoming due to that influence. He was already a born king, the powers and influence of a god of sheer will on top of that was a terrible thing to contemplate.

I had to reach him as quickly as possible. With a war on the way and Aurum looming beyond that, I had no time to lose. Luckily, between Stone and Dorsia, I had the perfect group to help smuggle me into the capital.