Chapter 94 - The Shadow Beyond

Couldn't get this one ready for yesterday. The scenes are getting much more complicated now, and where a chapter would usually take me about 8 hours, this took more like 15. 

There was no time to formulate a plan. A glance over his shoulder told Hump that the shades they’d sent scattering only a moment before were already reforming. No doubt more would come too, drawn to the remnant essence and troll blood.

They had to move forward. The gateway was in sight. All that stood between them and it was a couple of packs of flesh prowlers.

Easy enough, Hump thought. The four of them had handled a pack of the beasts before. Now that they had five additional Chosen at their side, how hard could it be?

The flesh prowlers he glimpsed near the gateway told him very. They weren’t acting like monsters. They held back to the rubble within the guardhouse walls, yapping and snarling at each other from their positions, like they were defending their den. While the guardhouse was in range, it would take time to fight through such a force. Time Hump wasn’t sure they had.

His gut told him there was more to this. It warned him of something dangerous going on, and he tried to figure out exactly what his subconscious had realised that he hadn’t. He had a terrible feeling that the reason the shades were attacking Fishers Lake Town every month was the same reason the flesh prowlers were acting as they did now.

There was a driving force behind all this. A commander.

Hump’s eyes were once more drawn to Albry. He was on his knees, bowed in prayer toward the very gateway that was killing him. Hump frowned. Not the gateway, but the shadow beyond. He remembered how the priest had stared over all of them during the altercation in the temple, as if he were analysing everything. Something had possessed him, and Hump was willing to be it was the same being that now stood beyond the gateway.

The shadow filled the rift, a monolith that was too large to fit through.

All the more reason to stop it before it figures out a way through.

If what they understood about this Remnant Realm was correct, there was little life on the other side. It was no wonder that anything alive over there would do anything it could to get to a world so full of it.

“The shades are moving,” Celaine hissed.

Hump looked back over his shoulder again as the shades descended over the rooftops of the nearby buildings like crows. Between Celaine and Randall’s archer, their arrows reaped havoc on the creatures. But it wasn’t enough. It would take more than that to stop the attack. The shades didn’t even need to do the damage, just having to be ready for an attack from the rear was enough to make any strategy difficult.

“We need to charge them,” Hump said.

“Agreed,” Randall said. “Skande, look for a chance to take out those pack leaders and keep an eye on our flanks. Make sure nothing reaches Estel or Celaine.”

“Got it.”

“Madeleine, we’re going down the centre,” Randall said. “Take the lead and try to clump them up. We’re going to need to kill them fast.”

“They have potent healing abilities,” Hump said. “Particularly the goliaths. We need to finish them fast.”

“I’ll take the lead with you,” Bud told Madeleine.

She shook her head. “No, stick behind me.” She tightened her shield strap around her arm. “My blessings are all about drawing the attention of my opponents and holding them in place while the rest of you do the damage. I’ll count on you for that.”

“Okay,” Bud said. “I’ll watch your left, Dylan take the right.”

She glanced at the cleric. “And I’ll count on Lawrence to keep me alive.”

“I’ll be ready,” he said, adjusting his own shield and drawing his mace.

Madeleine chanted under her breath and red essence seeped from her skin, enveloping all of them in her power. Hump felt his blood rage. It filled him with fire and strength, and he felt the thrill of battle descend on him.

“Try not to get in my way, wizard,” Randall said, though the remark lacked the condescension of his usual tone.

Hump grinned, deciding to take it as a challenge. “Right back at you.”

Madeleine strode forward, unaffected by the snarls of the flesh prowlers. When she crossed the halfway point, the largest of the goliaths let loose a howl. Then whole group joined it.

Furious howls filled the street, and the flesh prowlers charged. The two visible packs sped out, a third emerging from an alleyway to the side. That made fourteen of the beasts, two of which were goliaths. Arrows tore into the grunts, bring down three before they’d even entered combat. The goliaths were less effected, shrugging off arrows as if they were nothing more than a nuisance.

Hump and Randall shopped a short distance behind Madeleine, Celaine and Estel at their backs while the melee fighters continued forward. Randall brought his wand up and drew circles in the air, bubbles of cold forming along its trail. It was only now that Hump realised how much he’d been holding back in the church. What had been a dozen or so bubbles before was now more than a hundred. He shot them forward with a short chant, and they sought out the flesh prowlers, homing in on them much like Lantheer’s Flaming Arrows. Slower, but when they reached their targets and e, Hump witnessed their true devastation.

The ice slathered over the creatures, each exploding with spikes. A single one didn’t cause too much damage, but where ten or more focused on a single beast, it brought them down in agony. That was two more out of the fight immediately. Then Madeleine and Bud were before them, auras of blood and ice filling the air. As her power rose, Hump felt his own thrill increasing, raging through him like fire in his blood. He noticed the eyes of the flesh prowlers turn red—they were feeling it to. And it drew them to her.

She braced her shield, essence streaming from it. When the first creature reached her, she slapped it aside with a resounding blow, the smaller ones hardly a threat to her at all.

As one of the pack leaders bore down on her, Hump saw no reason to hold back. It was time to put aside any fear of his own power. There was no holding back now. He drew upon the flame within him, channelling it to his staff. The power welled in the crystal focus, building like boiling flame, fighting to break free.

He took aim at the goliath, the beast set on Madeleine and completely oblivious to his own attack.

“Fire Ray.”

There was a thunderous boom. Fire streaked through the air, a beam of hot, red light. It tore into the goliath’s side and blasted it back. The creature screamed in agony, muffled only when it thudded to the ground.

It scrambled with its legs, either trying to find its feet or writhing from the pain. Its entire side was charred and red, the edges of the wound smouldering while the rest of it bled profusely. Where the blood didn’t cover, white flesh bubbled and blistered.

Bud rushed forward, his sword ablaze with frostfire. He drew it up overhead and landed a devastating swing across the creature’s neck. The head fell to the ground.

One pack leader dead, and it hadn’t even had the chance to transform. Working with Madeleine, Dylan smashed down upon the flesh prowlers that charged her, sending them flying with the power of Aspect of the Bear.

Hump turned as a shadow fell upon him. He aimed up at a cluster of shades. “Fire Blast.”

The spell sent ten of them flying back, their cloaks scuffed and burning, but they’d been too distant to land devastating damage against them. At least with such a rushed spell.

He leant heavily against his staff, catching his breath. In the past, a combination of spells like these would have left him exhausted, but he’d grown strong with the dragon’s imprint. He’d recover quickly.

“Hump! Right!” Celaine shouted.

Hump heard rather than saw the arrow that whizzed past him, and the gasp of a flesh prowler to his side followed. He swung his staff in that direction, essence forming at the end in a Parry Shield that would have made Vivienne proud. The creature slammed into it with all its weight, but blows like that were what the shield was designed for, the the pack members were little larger than a dog. The impact jarred Hump’s hands, but he held strong. It fell away from the impact, stumbling and shaking its head, huffing out a breath.

Skander was above it a moment later, appearing in a burst of smoke. He fell upon the creature’s back, driving it to the ground with his weight and burying twin daggering into each side of the creature’s head. It collapsed silently.

“Thanks,” Hump said.

“Not at all,” Skander said, searching for his next target. “Next time I’ll try not to be late.”

Around them, what remained of the flesh prowlers were faltering. One goliath, its body bloodied and coated in ice, and a handful of the smaller pack members. For the first time, Hump saw fear replace the hunger in their eyes. This was a different fight from the one they’d had by the cave. The nine of them combined had power and defence well beyond the previous fight.

Bud, Dylan, and Madeleine pushed forward, forcing the flesh prowlers back into the guardhouse. When one stepped too close, Bud’s frostfire licked at its front, slowing it down as Dylan leaped over head and came down on its head with a powerful strike. It died speared on the end of Madeleine’s sword.

The flesh prowlers tried to form up at the entrance, blocking their way to the gateway. A desperate attempt that was so unlike monsters. Hump stepped up beside Randall and together they bathed the clustered group in flame of hot and cold. Arrows rained above, and sword, mace, and staff tore into the beasts that remained. The goliath fled back, yapping as it ran, two of the pack members escaping into the shadows of the rubble alongside it.

And then they were inside. Fourteen flesh prowlers dealt with just like that.

“Get to the centre,” Bud said to the rest of them. “Madeleine, keep pushing to Albry. The rest of us will guard the flanks.”

She grunted her agreement, advancing with her shield before her, the rest of them trailing just behind, their weapons ready.

The flesh prowlers that remained scampered about the hallways around them, but Hump didn’t catch sight of them. Something that made it worse, even though he knew their numbers were low now.

As they stepped into the destroyed central section of the building, Hump’s stomach dropped. There were bodies on the ground around them. At least twenty. He stared down at the one closest to him—a woman. She lay still but didn’t have the pale look that most corpses had. She must have died recently.

He frowned. Her chest moved. Or not.

He knelt, touching her neck for a pulse, feeling a heartbeat. Then he looked around the room to see the rest breathing too. There were a few bloody wounds and scratch marks, but these people hadn’t been torn into like those of Lakewood.

“They’re alive,” Hump said. “The shades weren’t killing people. They were taking prisoners.”

“Oh no,” Celaine said, hurrying to the side. The rest of them joined her, and they found Winfrey’s body. His head lay to the side, torn completely from the neck.

“Gods above,” Bud said. “He was a good man.”

“We can mourn later,” Hump said through gritted teeth. Rage coursed through him. “We need to destroy this first.”

Hump stared up at the gateway, rage filling him. It floated slightly off the ground and was almost two stories too, completely collapsing the middle part of the ceiling so that they could see into the jail house above. Albry didn’t seem to have noticed them yet, his head still bowed, but the shadow most certainly had. Its figure was too distorted through the gateway for Hump to make it out properly.

“It’s watching us,” Randall said.

“No shit,” Hump said. He turned his attention to the formation. “We need to destroy this.”

Randall didn’t wait, raising his want and launching a beam of frostfire at the closest rune. The beam exploded against an invisible barrier, a blast of cold air radiating from the impact. Hump shielded his face and grimaced.

“We’ll need to get around the shield first,” Hump said.

“How?” Randall asked.

Hump tried to comprehend the runes, but they were just as obscure as the ones he’d seen in the cave. They could try to ware down the shield, or they could come at it from a different angle. While barriers were very good at stopping direct attacks, most were less effective against things that targetted the environment around them. “We use the earth,” Hump said. “I’ll set up a formation. With a powerful enough spell, I should be able to destroy the runes from below.”

“Won’t it block your magic?” Randall asked.

Hump shook his head. “My magic won’t go within the shield. I’ll damage the ground around it.”

He set about producing a simple Transform Earth formation. Something to help to further focus his usual power. This was one of those times when he really needed a spell with more physical impact, but he would have to make do with the cantrip.

Nothing disturbed his preparations. With the spell ready, he gathered the others, then slammed his staff into the core of the formation and channelled.

“Transform Earth,” he whispered.

He willed the nearby earth to compress around the shield. It rose around it like sand around a boot. As the pressure built, it forced the earth inside to shift and crack. He pressed harder, forcing more power into the spell, forming a small trench around the shield. He felt the formation shatter, essence bursting into the air as it failed. The shield collapsed soundlessly. Albry slumped to the ground unconscious, and the edges of the gateway suddenly flickered.

“Did it work?” Skander asked, looking back at him.

His eyes suddenly went wide, something between a gasp and a gurgle escaping his lips. He stared at Hump with wide eyes, his back to the gateway. And that’s when Hump saw it. A long claw pierced through Skander’s stomach, holding the rogue off his feet. Skander looked down at it, more confused than pained. It was more like a garden rake than an appendage of any beast Hump had seen.

He followed the long arm, back to the gateway, where the shadow was no longer distorted. It towered over them, taller even than the troll, with long, thick arms and a powerful body. It wore no armour, instead, its body was covered in bone like formations. Veins of violet and red popped out through the armour, pulsing with power. 

It tossed Skander's limp body aside as if it weighed nothing.

“No!” Randall roared.

The creature smiled a teethy grin. “Like flies drawn to honey.” Its voice came like a whisper in Hump’s ear. With its clawed hands, it stretched open the gateway, and flesh prowlers stepped through.