‘Any luck, Syline?’ he called. If this thing regenerated from whatever he did, then she was their only real hope.
‘Nothing for flying, yet! Amberly has something in mind!’ Syline squealed behind him.
She was on her knees, frantically flipping through pages as Amberly held back the oncoming horde. Come on, come on, she had to have something! Syline could feel the panic rising in her breast, her friends needed her magic. Here and now, she was literally their only solution and none of the spells she had bookmarked or memorised were useful at this moment. She glanced across another page in her frantic search: a great cone of flame, a simple spell, but one that only grew more powerful the more one’s reserves were poured into it.
‘Keep looking!’ Thelonious called to her, leaping to the side to avoid a lashing tentacle. He swung down at it, lopping it off, the severed end wriggling wildly. The creature retracted the tentacle, squealing. It’d probably grow back in a few moments, but that did give him an idea. He ran towards the beast, dancing around tentacles, then he heard Syline cry out behind him.
‘I’ve got one, Amberly!’
‘Use it!’ came the panicked reply.
He didn’t have time to look back; he could only pray they’d manage. For now, well, he’d spent enough time at a lumber town to know how to chop something down to size. It might be able to heal from any wound, but if he cut off all its tentacles, surely even it would take a while to come back from that.
Amberly had just enough time to scramble to the side of the hall as Syline unleashed her spell. Flames washed over the hall from behind her, and immediately, the horde she’d been holding back erupted in distorted wails, the smell of burning meat overpowering even their natural acrid stench.
‘Great! Do the same for Thelonious!’ Amberly said, leaping back into the fray. She grabbed Syline’s axe off her as she went, and Syline let out a little cry. She didn’t mind lending her duelling sabre, but that axe was special. Though, as Amberly started taking heads left and right with it, she thought it best not to argue. She was putting it to good use.
Syline felt pride well up in her. She hated feeling worthless, and between the two warriors, able to do little else but scour her spell-book for a way to get them all out of this situation, for the whole of the fight, she’d felt like little but added weight, until now. Her flames had set the awful creatures Amberly was facing on the back foot, and Syline was glad to watch the woman wade into them with abandon, the wounds she inflicted no longer healing, foul brackish blood leaking from porous, burned flesh. Perhaps they could win this, after all, if the secret to these hideous creatures was that they couldn’t take flames. If it worked on the small ones, it might work on the terrible beast Thelonious was holding at bay.
She found him ankle deep in torn flesh and severed tentacles, each cut off as fast as the beast could grow them. Thelonious was chopping them off again and again, but it didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere. The creature was wild with fury and Thelonious had a fair few bite marks and gashes in his flesh now from where it had gotten a hold of him. One of his arms seemed slow and Syline could see him wincing with every swing. He was just barely managing to keep ahead of it. Thank heavens it wasn’t smart enough to bring its rear tentacles to bare. If things kept progressing like this, it was only a matter of time until Thelonious tired so much that it truly caught him.
‘Thelonious!’ Syline shouted.
They couldn’t flee at this point. She hadn’t found anything, at least not anything that would get all three of them out. The stupid tome was hundreds of pages long and with no real organisation to it. It was like the archmage had just scribbled down the spells as he found them, and chances are, he had. That left their only methods of escaping this place victory, or death.
‘Bit busy, Syline!’ A tentacle burst out of a stump, growing as fast as it was moving, and it was moving right for Syline. Thelonious roared as he swung down at it. He caught it a moment too late, and not hard enough. The tentacle struck Syline in the side of her chest, and she was thrown from her feet. She barely managed to cover her head to stop herself from taking any real damage as she tumbled across the stone, standing as quick as she was able.
‘Shitting hells! Sorry! What is it?’ Thelonious yelled back her way, returning to the fray with new fury.
‘Duck! Then aim for anywhere I hit!’
She was heartened to see that her bodyguard had faith enough in her to duck without any further questions, immediately he hit the floor, and Syline let the flames surge out of her, rolling over the creature. This time, she wasn’t just going to sit here and let others fight. If they were going to have to kill this thing, then she’d be right there in the thick of it. She conjured up her flame dagger from the tip of her staff, making it as strong as she dared. She was certain she’d grown more powerful because, despite the magics she’d been putting out, she was sure she had plenty to spare yet. Blade of flame ready, she charged in after her wave of flames to join her bodyguard.
Syline said ‘duck’, so he went down. When he came up, it was like he was entering a whole new fight. The creature was screaming, but now, fear had entered alongside that mad, unending pain. Now, it knew they were a real threat. The creature’s flesh bubbled and blackened, blisters bursting forth and popping immediately beneath the flames, and thick, foul-smelling blood oozed from the cracks and sores left in its flesh. This thing definitely didn’t like fire. Best of all, to Thelonious, Syline had caught its front tentacles in the blast, and the things wriggled and writhed like dying snakes right up until he hacked them off at the base. This time, they didn’t grow back.
The creature was on the defensive now, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to fight back. Its huge maw came for Thelonious, and he knew full well he could only meet it head on with his blade. His already aching arm would give out. He’d be lucky if it didn’t shatter. Hell, he’d be lucky to survive this.
But none of that ever came to pass. As it came at him, Syline, that stupid, brave little wizard came running in at his side, screaming a high-pitched battle cry full of fear and forced bravado. She jabbed at the creature’s eyes with that flaming staff of hers, and suddenly the fear was back in its cries. Rearing back, it pulled away from them as Syline harried it with the flames. Thelonious allowed himself to release the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. A cold feeling of relief washing through his form like a cool breeze.
Then, reality, oh so quickly, caught up with him again. Syline was in a melee with that beast. Syline, his tiny, stupidly brave and terrifyingly frail ward. Panic rushed through him; if a glancing hit could nearly tear out his shoulder, its attacks passing near her might well kill Syline. He ran in after Syline and set to slashing at the beast’s chest and shoulders. He aimed for its head whenever it came in reach, but it was smart enough to keep that at the top of the tunnel, away from the flames. At this point, its face was badly burned – along with much of its chest – and Syline’s spear of fire was leaving deep, black wounds with every jab. She must’ve been eating through her magical energy damned fast to burn it that hot, but they were winning.
But when a beast like this is put in a corner, it’s at its most dangerous. He knew that, still, he let bravado and cheer at seeing that they were winning, get the better of him. That’s why he felt they had no one to blame but him when the creature’s rear tentacle came over its shoulder, coiled around Syline’s waist and lifted her screaming into the air. He should’ve known it would go for the source of the flames, since the cuts he inflicted only seemed to annoy it. Syline’s staff clattered to the ground and Thelonious cursed as the creature began shaking her back and forth. He had to kill it now. There was no way they were leaving without Syline.
‘Thelonious!’
He looked behind him. Amberly was sprinting his way, Syline’s axe held in both hands.
‘Give me a lift!’
It took a moment for it to click with him just what she meant, but when it did, he could barely keep a grin off his face. Both these girls were lunatics. At least things were definitely lively with them around. Thelonious dropped his sword and cupped his hands together, going low on his haunches to get ready. Amberly came sprinting at him and the moment her foot hit his cupped hands, he pitched her up, throwing with all his might. He roared as he felt his right shoulder give way; that one would hurt for weeks. But it did what it needed to, and Amberly went right up over his head, high enough to meet the creature eye-to-eye as she screamed her own battle cry. The creature had time enough to meet her gaze – and probably wonder just what in the hell she thought she was doing – before Amberly buried the axe in its forehead, the whole of the axe head sinking deep into the burned flesh and bone.
Just like that, it was over. The wax-work elves had already moved like puppets, but that image was impressed upon them all the more as the draconic creature collapsed to the ground as if its strings had been cut. Syline squealed as the tentacle flailing her about suddenly went slack and she landed upon another one, severed upon the ground. A better landing, at least, than if she had fallen straight onto the stone. Amberly tucked and rolled as she hit the stone, more athletic than Syline, she came up standing and clutching her side.
None of them escaped the fight without injury. Syline’s sides would surely bruise, something had definitely pulled in her stomach as she was shaken, and her breathing was laboured as she struggled to catch it. Thelonious was nursing a sprained – possibly broken – elbow, and his shoulder was in no better state. Amberly had broken at least two ribs and had taken another blow to her shoulder when she’d been clearing up the burned and flailing waxy horde.
But the fact remained they had won. It took a few moments to sink in for all of them. All three just stood, looking at one another and catching their breath until, slowly, grins began to break out on all their faces. Amberly was the first to start laughing and Syline quickly followed, but it was Thelonious who laughed the loudest. He punched the air and immediately regretted it, but that didn’t stop his victorious roar. They’d done it.
The two girls joined him, all three yelling until their voices echoed through the terrifying place. This time, nothing roared back at them, only the echoes of their victory. The place was dead again. Once more, it was a tomb for them to explore. The oppressive air that had hung over the place had fallen away, as if it had come with the creatures, and faded with their deaths. Still full of adrenaline, Syline looked between the pair of them.
‘Should we explore a little more? I mean we know how to beat them now!’
Thelonious burst out laughing. Gods, she was so brave, so damned utterly mad. One big meaty hand came to muss with Syline’s hair, provoking a pout from the girl.
‘A little further then, just a few rooms, but the moment I feel like we’re in danger, we run for it. Okay?’ Thelonious offered as a compromise. Gods, even if they did know how to fight these things, he doubted he could take another battle. Neither could the girls, despite Syline’s enthusiasm, he could see how hard a time she was having trying to catch her breath and he doubted it was just the adrenaline.
‘I’m doing the best out of us, let me lead the way,’ Amberly offered. ‘Besides, if these things were demons.’ She let out a slow breath, the smell of them was sending the memories soaring through her mind. ‘If they were demons, we need to make sure this place can’t summon more.’
Thelonious gave a slight shrug in response. That was as good a reason as any. Though he did worry about the fervour in her tone when it came to demons, after all, those things hadn’t attacked until she’d kicked things off.
Syline refreshed the lights hovering at their shoulders, and with Amberly taking the lead, they pushed through into the chamber the creatures had come from. The butt of Amberly’s borrowed blade pushing aside the remnants of the door frame.
Syline gagged. Thelonious swore. Corax leapt out of Syline’s scarf where he’d been cowering the whole while to flutter up to the rim of the exit. Only Amberly seemed to not be overtly affected.
The place was a charnel house. Fused flesh and melted bodies covered the walls and floor, more of those same waxwork elves, writhing, still living, but fused into a helpless mass. It was like they were dough, mashed into the corners of the room by their more whole compatriots. Who knows how long they had been here. Who knows how long it had taken for them to be reduced to this state. Questing tendrils and unformed arms reached up towards them as they entered.
