Feral Mage 3: Chapter 19

“The Divine help us,” Duke Brook said, staring at the abomination.

Jasper’s face remained neutral while he sent slashes of Water Blades at the creature as its body continued to appear around the hedge. The spell tore apart the hedges, revealing several pikemen following behind the creature, though its armor was decent enough to withstand the attack. Bryce grimaced as he counted nearly a dozen of them.

“Where the bloody hell are the guards?” the Duke bellowed.

Bryce knew the answer from the blood-covered gauntlets the abomination wore, though the fact that it didn’t possess any weapons worried him. Callie appeared beside him and Thea, a sword drawn.

“Can you fight in that dress?” he asked her.

Callie snorted.

“Against men? Yes. Against whatever the hells that thing is? Well, I don’t think I have much of a choice,” she said.

An arrow bounced off the abomination’s armor as it crawled toward them. Jasper cast three more Water Blades, two at the creature and one at the nearest pikeman. As before, the spell failed to damage the creature, but the pikeman was decapitated. Only to stay standing as his headless body continued marching toward them.

Shit!

Bryce looked at Jasper.

“The same as on the ship, aim for the chest,” he yelled. “Destroy the wooden heart!”

The mage's next attack slammed into the headless pikeman’s chest, rupturing it with an ice shard. As the body slumped to the ground unmoving, the other guards reacted and charged.

“We need to flee back into the estate,” Charlotte yelled to the other nobles, her guards standing beside her. Many moved to join her, except Thea, who looked conflicted on leaving Bryce and Callie’s side, and the Duke, who stood near Jasper, glancing around the garden in confusion.

A spearman reached the abomination first, lashing out at its head. One of the creature’s hands came up, grabbing the spear’s shaft with lightning-fast reflexes. Before anyone could reach the man, the abomination pulled on the spear, drawing the man closer into its grasp.

The spearman screamed as the abomination’s many hands grabbed hold of limbs, ears, hair, and whatever else before tearing him apart and crawling over the mangled pieces of his corpse. Harold Volson had done more than just mimic a monster’s appearance, but the speed and strength of one as well.

“Where the bloody hell are my guards!” the Duke yelled, fear and panic slipping into his voice. “They should be watching the perimeter!”

Dead, you old fool.

Then the Duke’s words sank in. The abomination and pikemen were only coming from the east and made no effort to hide it. He also suspected, given the strength and reflection of the abomination, that it could move much quicker than it currently was. His gut and experience told him one thing.

“They’re trying to flush us out!” Bryce yelled, his gaze turning to Thea. “Don’t leave the garden!”

Fear filled her eyes, but she nodded.

“Callie, I go left, you go right?” Bryce asked, turning his gaze back to the abomination.

She responded with a grunt before they both shot forward, blades drawn.

Callie arrived first, her Bloodline of Thorns boosting her speed more than Bryce’s Primal Troll Aspect. She had already delivered several slashes at the abomination's arms, trying to find a weak spot in its armor, by the time Bryce swung his first blow. While the Primal Troll Aspect lacked in speed, it made up for it with sheer power. His sword severed two of the abomination’s limbs with one strike.

There was no cry of pain from the monstrosity. It was just several corpses Harold Volson stitched together after all. Instead, its misshapen body turned toward him with the speed it had displayed against the spearman, its many hands reaching for something to grasp.

Bryce dropped his sword to grapple with the creature, breaking and twisting its limbs in a desperate gamble to keep it from ripping him apart. The fine clothing Thea had brought for him was torn from his body by the thing’s hands searching for anything to grab a hold of. The sharpened tips of its gauntlet hands left gouges in his flesh, only for his Aspect to quickly heal them.

He was about to pull on his Pale Queen Aspect for its Ice Breath when a sword pierced through an exposed gap between two of the breastplates it wore. The sword cut one way while Bryce shifted his body the other. Over a quarter of the abomination’s body tore free in his grasp, and Bryce threw it at one of the stone statues in the garden.

He glanced over to see Callie keeping the other three-fourths of the abomination busy with hit-and-run attacks, the thing now struggling to keep up with her.

Its reflexes are sluggish now…

Jasper and the other guards were dispatching the pikemen, the fencer wielding his battle axe. He looked to Thea to make sure she was okay, seeing her still watching them; then he turned to the quarter of the abomination he had thrown at the statue. It still moved, its body struggling to stand with multiple broken limbs. Bryce picked up his sword and approached it cautiously. It tried to grapple him again, but it was much weaker this time and, like the one Callie face, sluggish in its movements.

He effortlessly hacked away its limbs, leaving only three joined torsos wriggling on the ground. The fact that the abomination could still move after its body was separated led Bryce to believe that Harold had used multiple wooden hearts to create it. Was that why it had been so strong and fast, only to become weaker when broken apart? If he could make something like this, what else could he make?

Bryce frowned at the thought as he moved to join Callie, the swordswoman already having severed a few limbs in the abomination’s weaker state. Together, they overwhelmed it, cutting away its remaining limbs.

“Harold Volson is a sick bastard,” Callie said as she caught her breath. Disgust was written across her face as she stared down at the wriggling mass.

Bryce agreed, and he heard Ciarra’s voice give an approving hum, but he had other concerns.

“Where are the rest of them?” he asked, as he watched Jasper and the other guards dispatch the remaining pikemen.

A few of the nobles had even found some courage and were throwing the colorful balls and mallets from their game at one of the pikemen, though from a safe distance away. The Duke had shifted from fear and panic to anger.

“Another attempt on my life, but I still live! When I come for your head, Harold Volson, there will be only one attempt!” the Duke roared before his fury-filled gaze turned to Thea. “I swear upon the Divine we will depose of your Uncle and his puppet Kingdoms!”

A cheer went up from the nobles at the Duke’s words. Bryce, though, was still looking around, as were Jasper and Callie.

Was I wrong about them trying to flush us out?

“I don’t like this,” Callie said. “Even with that monstrosity, this isn’t enough of a force to take out the Duke’s guards.”

Bryce nodded. The guards should have appeared by now; even if they were fighting against another group of puppets, we should have heard the battle.

“Bryce, are you injured?” Thea asked as she rushed over to them. She was staring at his chest.

Looking down, he saw the blood-soaked remains of his shirt and jacket that Thea had given him. Enough blood that an average man wouldn’t be standing right now.

“The Aspect I’m using heals me,” he answered, trying to alleviate some of Thea’s worry.

She nodded, but her gaze didn’t leave his bloody clothing.

An eerie silence filled the garden as the guards returned to their nobles' sides. Bryce took stock of everyone, noticing three nobles had fled with Princess Charlotte into the estate despite his warning.

Bryce started approaching Jasper, the mage watching the Duke’s noble guest with a frown.

“Four are missing. They followed Princess Charlotte into the estate,” he said.

Jasper didn’t even look at him. “Most likely, they have found hiding spots and will come out once they are sure it’s safe.”

Bryce noticed the mage’s fingers twitching, and his stance was still rigid. The attack had shaken him, or maybe it was what had attacked them. Facing a monster was different than facing armed men, and that abomination was probably as close to a monster as some of these guards had ever encountered.

“Should we check for them?” he asked.

He saw the scowl form on Jasper’s face and knew the answer before he even spoke. “They will come out when they’re ready. I will not abandon the Duke’s side to search for them.”

Bryce gave a slight nod before returning to stand by Callie and Thea. The Duke’s assistant hadn’t cared who heard his response, or more likely had temporarily lost control of his temper and lashed out.

Thea wore a troubled expression, and Callie openly glared at Jasper. Before Bryce could say anything to them, they heard another scream.

“Help me! Please, help me!” Princess Charlotte’s voice cried out from beyond the hedges.

Bryce saw Thea’s face morph into horror before he looked over to Jasper. The man was organizing the guards in a protective formation around the remaining nobles. He acted as if he didn’t hear the pleas of the Princess. The fencer and knight shifted uncomfortably, casting glances in the direction the cries were coming from. None of them would help her, either out of fear of their obligations or simply out of fear.

“Callie, stay with Lady Thea,” Bryce said as he dropped his Primal Troll Aspect.

He started moving toward the direction he heard Princess Charlotte, his mind counting down from thirty before he pulled on his Manticore Aspect out of habit. He doubted he even needed to count down between using Aspects anymore.

He leaped over the hedges of the garden as his poisonous claws formed on his hands and his senses heightened. He smelled Charlotte’s scent and raced toward her, his sword drawn.

She was just past the woods’ edge on the western side of the Duke’s yard. Bryce arrived to see her crawling on the ground, trying to escape one of the pikemen. Her dress was covered in mud. The pikeman turned to face Bryce, thrusting out with his namesake weapon. The attack was slow with the Manticore Aspect active, and Bryce slipped past the spearhead of the pike easily, plunging his blade through the chest of the pikeman. He pushed until he felt his sword pierce through the wooden heart, and the puppet stopped moving.

“Where’s the other nobles?” Bryce asked as he pulled his blade free.

Princess Charlotte’s body shook as she sat on the ground, and he heard her sniffle as she stared at the dead pikeman.

“I-I don’t know. We ran into more of these creatures, and I got separated from the others and my guards,” she said, voice quivering.

Bryce sniffed the air, trying to scent anyone else.

“Can you help me up?” Charlotte asked, finally looking at him.

He approached her, offering his hand.

“We should get you back with the others where it’s safe.”

She smiled up at him, taking his hand.

“Thank you,” she said as he pulled her to her feet. “In my God’s name, Paralysis.”

His body froze, and he realized Princess Charlotte had cast a spell on him. The fear left her as a cocky smile formed on her face as she dusted off her dress.

“You’re not who I was hoping for,” she said, hiking her dress up to pull free a dagger strapped to her thigh. “But you will make an interesting and useful puppet.”

Bryce could do nothing as Princess Charlotte pushed the dagger into his chest, the blade stabbing into his heart.