Aidan

The Realms

Fourthday, 1st week of the 8th month, Godless Age 597

Pre-dawn

Ceallach Macht, Mistvale Highlands

The crunch of a metal-on-metal impact and a scream of pain drew Aidan's attention. He whipped his head to the left and saw Llwyd with his arm dangling at his side, his shield crumpled like the front end of a car that ran into a tree. His arm bent at an odd angle, and his shoulder looked even worse. The dakhol roared in victory, raising its club for another strike, but Ceirios's golem slammed into it. Even the hulking monster couldn't resist the force behind the stone golem's attack, and it skidded and fell to the ground a few feet away. Aidan started to shout for the mage to heal Llwyd but saw that she was already on the way. Instead, he called out, "Ysbail! Cover Llwyd and Ceirios! Brighid, Anwn, finish those Manikins now!"

Burning Barrage and Soulfire Blast were still cooling down, and Spark of Life was useless against living enemies, so Aidan charged forward, casting Flame Jet with both hands. Even as twin streams of fire began to arc towards the Manikins, he glanced to his right. Cai dodged and deflected her dakhol's attacks as best she could, but the monster's energy seemed limitless. It slammed its club down with long arms over and over, and with each strike, Stamina and Health dropped slightly more. Even worse, Cai's ax was red with blood, but Aidan couldn't see any wounds on the dakhol's body. Her shield and armor were doing their jobs, keeping her alive, but it was clear that while Ysbail may have managed to kill one of these things on her own, Cai would not be achieving the same feat.

"Hold on just a little while longer!" Aidan called out to her. "We have to kill the other one first, now that Llwyd is hurt!" He focused his attention on the remaining Manikins, torching them with Flame Jets. Fortunately, for whatever reason, the Taig didn't bother to protect its lesser minions from fire. With two instances of the spell active at the same time, it didn't take long to clean up the weakened remnants. Every second mattered, though; Aidan could see Ysbail's Health bar growing darker and darker by the moment.

Unfortunately, Aidan's magic was not well-suited to fighting living, fire-resistant enemies. Grimacing, he drew his Summer Sword from its belt sheath. The thought of trying to fight it in melee combat made his stomach twist in knots, but maybe he could be a distraction for the others. "Ceirios, can you get your golem to grapple or restrain it? Brighid, Ysbail, try to slice me some deep holes in this thing so I can fry it."

A metallic impact and a grunt of pain sounded behind him, but before he could check on Cai, she yelled, "Running out of Stamina over here! I am alright, but not for much longer!"

"Alright, ladies, it's do-or-die time!" Aidan cried out, lunging with his sword. The dakhol slapped his attack away with a lazy backhanded swipe of its hand, almost disarming him in the process. He kept his grip, though, and ducked under the return swing. With Aidan, the golem, various wolves, Anwn, Ysbail, and Brighid all attacking it, the dakhol was unable to defend itself from every attack. Aidan circled towards its front, jabbing and feinting to draw its attention away from the golem. The brutish monster roared in frustration and raised its club overhead, but before it could crush Aidan into paste, two stony arms wrapped around it from behind. The dakhol shifted its grip to smash its attack over its shoulder, spraying gravel through the air, but the damage was done. Even that momentary diversion was enough for Brighid and Ysbail to act decisively.

Ysbail brought her sword around in a double-handed grip on her right side, tip pointed down at an angle parallel to her body, then let out a shout as she activated an Ability. The massive blade began to glow, the intensity increasing with every heartbeat that passed. As Ysbail charged up her attack, Brighid shifted into her overhead stance and stabbed and sliced at the dakhol's exposed belly. Arrows slammed home in the monster's shoulders and chest, one after the other, and wolves darted in and out, biting chunks out of coarse-furred legs. The brute broke free from the golem's grip after a few seconds, but that was all the time Ysbail needed. With a shout, she reared up then lunged forward, bringing her sword up, around, and down in a gleaming overhead slash. With a wet thunk, her blade bit into her enemy's flesh and carved through muscle and bone.

"Now, Aidan!" Brighid shouted, but he was already casting. Unwilling to risk anything less than a complete kill, he rushed up to the creature, chanting the incantation to Soulfire Blast. The grievous wound was already stitching itself closed, but the golem grabbed each half of the dakhol's body and pulled it back apart. Aidan leaned over it, sprayed by the fountain of blood shooting from its body, thrust his hands into its chest, and completed his spell. Again he felt his soul tearing apart as silver-white flames engulfed his target. The dakhol screamed and writhed, lurching against the golem's hold, but Ysbail and Brighid grabbed on as well. Aidan held his Concentration on Soulfire Blast for a full five seconds until it fell limp and real flames began to emerge from its corpse.

The party had no chance to relax, however. Even as one dakhol burned from the inside out, they heard a loud crunch of steel on steel and the sound of an armored body hitting the ground. Ominously, there was no scream or cry of pain from Cai, but Llwyd let out a wordless shout of anguish and fear from where Ceirios was still working to treat his arm. Aidan spun around in time to see the dakhol lift Cai's limp body—armor, shield, and all—over its shoulder and run into the tunnel. "Cai!" Llwyd screamed, scrambling to his feet. He ran over to the burning dakhol and pulled his lance free with a savage yank, then wheeled and prepared to charge into the darkness. Thankfully, Ceirios shouted a command to her golem, which heaved itself into Llwyd's path and grabbed him with its good arm. "No! Please! She is still alive, I know she is still alive, I have to go save her, please, you have to let me go!" He struggled against the rocky restraint, but Ceirios stood firm.

"You are still too hurt. You could not fight against one of those things with a shield, how do you think you are going to rescue Cai without one? I am sure that Aidan intends to follow it and retrieve Cai, but charging off alone will only get you killed or captured. Now, stop being an idiot and let me finish healing you!" She snapped at Llwyd. He struggled for a moment longer, then sagged against the golem's arm and sank to his knees.

"Ceirios is right," Aidan added. "We need to heal up before we head in there. Who knows what kind of ambush the Taig has planned? I truly, truly understand what you are feeling, Llwyd," he said, thinking back to Brighid's injury in the Fetid Lair, "but you know we can't just chase after it. It took Cai for a reason; it would have been faster to retreat without her, no matter how strong it is. They need her for something, and as evil as this thing is, I've seen no evidence it practices blood magic." He sheathed his sword and dismissed the experience prompts crowding the edge of his vision. He'd review those when time was less precious.

Aidan had everyone gather around Ceirios and Llwyd, then cast Pulse of Life to refill all their Health pools at once. He let it pulse several times until Ysbail's Health was restored, then dismissed it to save Stamina. Her Wounds he fixed with Patch Wounds—none of them were significant enough to need Ceirios's attention. That was fortunate, as she had to start her healing spell over when Llwyd moved, and it had a long casting time. Eventually, though, streamers of golden light congealed around Llwyd's arm, then sank through his armor and into his skin. He grunted, and Aidan could see the tendons in Llwyd's neck straining to keep the scream of pain in as his bones realigned themselves and knit back together. In seconds, her spell fixed what would have taken weeks or even months on Earth, and the dark red of Llwyd's missing Health refilled with bright crimson.

Llwyd pulled off his useless shield and tossed it to the side. "I am healed now. Let us be going—even if you ignore Cai's plight, we have no time to waste. Fionn and the others are still fighting and dying." Aidan nodded, then called new orders out to the others.

"Ysbail, join Llwyd at the front. Anwn, please ask the wolves to guard our flanks; there're only three or four side passages, so that shouldn't be a problem for them. I don't think there'll be more ambushes waiting for us, anyway. The dakhols were the strongest things I saw before, save the Taig itself, and if that asshole had more chaff, it would have thrown it at us with the dakhols. We're going to go straight up the tunnel to the vine chamber; I'm certain that's where the dakhol is going, and it's our goal anyway. Once we get there, be prepared for a fight even worse than this. I will try to burn the vines as best I can, but I don't know if the Taig has managed to protect them from fire like it did the Manikin it used to talk to us."

Aidan's thoughts were grim as he followed Ysbail and Llwyd under the hill. Llwyd might believe—might need to believe—that Cai was still alive, but Aidan saw how her armor was staved in across her equine back. If she was still alive, she would be paralyzed for the rest of her life, barring the use of healing magic far beyond his Skill. Aidan was no doctor back on Earth, but he was pretty sure he knew a broken back when he saw one. Worse, here in the Realms, he could see her Health bar in his party interface.

There was no sign of the bright red of remaining Health on it.

Fionn

Pre-Dawn

Outside Ceallach Macht, Mistvale Highlands

Fionn wasted no time. He raised his war horn to his lips through the narrow slit in his helmet and blew three short, sharp notes followed by a long one. Immediately, the warriors with him began to step backward carefully, contracting their formation into a more defensively-oriented one; he would allow the gargoyles to distract the Manikins and preserve his own manpower as best he could. If the boy did not complete his mission, the best chance for the rest of them to survive was now to let the gargoyles do the bulk of the work.

Despite the tighter formation and the help from the Sapphire Sky gargoyles, the sheer incredible number of undead still caused casualties. They swarmed over each other in a mad rush to reach the centaurs. None of them fought with any skill, but there were ten or more manikins for each centaur, and the best discipline, highest Skill, and sturdiest armor would eventually fall to such numbers. Even the gargoyles were struggling; Fionn saw one pulled to the ground and buried under a pile of dead flesh, although it did eventually throw off its attackers and rise into the air on its massive stony wings again.

Then he heard a shout behind him. "The vines! Warleader, the vines!" Fionn whirled in place, trusting his heavy armor and thick hide to protect him from any opportunistic attacks while he assessed the new threat. What he saw chilled him to the bone. The space in the center of the Starchasers' circular formation was left open as a safe place for their wounded and healers, and to drag the dead to in order to prevent gaps in the lines. Unfortunately, the enemy was even more insidious than Fionn had thought; dozens of dried, brown-gray vines burst from the ground and attacking the wounded. Even as he charged to their aid, he saw one set of creepers emerge entirely from the ground like snakes. They wrapped themselves around and through the mangled corpse of a dead warrior, which rose and started to attack its former allies.

Before he could reach the healers, a veritable thicket of vines rose out of the ground. Fionn and several other warriors who heard the shout hacked and cut their way through the multitude of plants, but when they destroyed one vine, two more broke through the ground to fight against them. As mightily as he struggled, Fionn was unable to save either healer from the vines and Manikins swarming them. The vile plants cut them down and then desecrated their corpses by raising them as new Manikins. He raised his horn to his lips to sound the retreat, but a creeper snatched it out of his hand before he could blow the first note.

As many fights as Fionn had seen, this was the worst. He cursed himself for delaying this so long and prepared himself to meet his end at last. At least he would go down fighting, not die in bed of age or disease.