Ambush
I awoke to the screams of the dying and the howls of wolves. The ear-splitting noise shocked me into action.
I sighed. Attacked again?
A giant paw came crashing through the canvas and was held hovering by the mighty force grip of Morgana. Thick claws longer than swords tore through the tent canvas and scraped against Morgana’s force barrier. She threw the canvas out of the way with a flick of her wrist.
I had a clear sight of the creature: a baleful wolf easily larger than a house. The overgrown lupin loomed over as mere humans. An elderly woman was caught in its mouthful of snarling sharp teeth as its globs of spit dropped passed us. It shook her, then crunched its teeth together and swallowed her whole. The blood dripped down its shaggy-green coat.
Iris roared in rage and threw an orb of fire into the wolf's golden eyes. It reared back from the fur frying flames.
I leapt to my feet and reached up to the sky. I pumped my arm down and closed my hand into a fist calling down lightning. The blue streak tore through the air and arched to the creature's back. The creature shivered and flattered. The blast left behind the fresh smell of ozone and singed fur.
The fearsome wolf growed. Mighty as our attack had been, the dread wolf shrugged them off with a shake off its muzzle. Incidentally spraying fresh blood over the three. It raised its snout high and howled out three blood curdling shrieks. A terrible magic bellowed out from its throat.
My whole body shook, my head spun, and the shock nearly stopped my heart. In a moment of clarity, I watched many of the villagers die from shock.
Then it turned its gaze back to us.
Morgana leaped into action, naked and ass shaking. She swung her claymore straight to its heels. In a single stroke with a little added force energy, she lopped off its forepaw. When it buckled down she thrust her sword straight through its jaws and pulled it down with a force far greater than what she did in the last battle we fought.
She yanked her claymore out then with a horizontal slash started to hack its face off with a frenzy of brutal strikes. After about half a dozen she gouged through the skull and started cutting into the brain. Three more wild slashes and it was dead.
Morgana let out a howl of her own while drenched in the blood of the giant wolf. A burst of subtle magic rippled out from her across the camp.
I felt renewed vigour and courage flow through me. “Fuck yeah!” I screamed out of a gamer habit to a brutal takedown.
“They’re massive! What kind of Cù-Sìth are they? What do we do?” Iris yelled. Iris gave me a name for them at least. Cù-Sìth or Fairy-dogs.
I pulled my staff to my hand, and observed the turmoil.
“Fight!” I replied.
She screamed in response: an awkward mix of battle shout and fearful screech.
A bath of blood rose through the rest of the camp from the leaking wounds of over a dozen dead villagers. The war band’s numbers whittled down fast with every breath. Cù-Sìth of varying sizes rampaged while Redcaps tread underneath, adding to the chaos. Some of the wolves were house-sized but most were no bigger than a horse.
On the other side of the camp a tall, thin womanish creature with grey skin sat on a giant wooden chariot pulled by four massive Cù-Sìth. She watched and laughed with a glee that rang clear even from a distance. On each side two full armoured Orge’s stood wielding enormous spears.
Huge jaws bore down with a thought I pulled on the shield stored in my ring and the terrible, sharp teeth stopped short bashing against the transparent blue barrier. I threw the staff up and it blasted a hole through my shield and punctured Cù-Sìth's throat and brain. I pulled the staff back and the monster slumped down dead.
I tried futility to fling off the blood and brain matter from my staff. The benefits of a fire-enchanted ring Iris gifted me? It doesn’t matter if my balls were exposed to the wind and I was splattered with the blood of my enemies. I was as warm as a bubble bath. Sadly, I was dripping guts.
I summoned lightning and the crack of thunder announced the blue bolts. They arced down from the sky decimating the Redcaps with extreme precision. My understanding of mana really was a cheat; it allowed me an accuracy equal to robotic exactness.
I flew a sword from a dead warrior’s hand through any wolf who tread near. I pushed to the centre of the camp towards where their numbers were thickest and by steel and lightning they fell.
Meanwhile, Morgana and Iris circled around. They fought as a team of force, fire and steel. Morgana cut deep into monster flesh followed by a stream of blood and brought the creature low with its neck exposed.
Iris shifted form into one of the wolves and tore open a throat before she shifted back. The wolf tried to run but made it a couple of steps before collapsing in a heap. I watched with my mouth wide open until I lost sight of them as Iris sprayed smoke for cover. I didn’t know, Iris could shift like that.
Fuck, she was cool.
I drew more weapons under my control. I was the slaughtering storm, bare as a baby and deadly as an army.
The chariot hag like figure drove into the battle shouting and rallying her forces. She butchered from atop her high ground. A group of her forces splintered off and charged towards my companions. The ogres came after me.
I never saw Morgana’s grin as her improvised plan succeeded. I was too busy with the fight before me. I squeezed the armour of the ogres and used it to crush their ribs like a steam roller, making their torsos flat as pancakes.
Morgana and Iris blasted through the Hag’s attacking forces leaving behind sliced off limbs and charred corpses. The Hag turned her chariot to flee, but I spotted Morgana jump on. She stared down at the hags with contempt. She never gave it a chance to plead before she decapitated the foul creature.
The Hag was dead, her forces scattered in clumps. I focused my attention on one of the groups of fleeing Cù-Sìth and Redcaps. I sliced them up and bombarded the rest to dust.
I was about to celebrate victory when a big boulder flew like a cannonball and shattered my shield but was stopped still. However, I felt a dagger dig into my back many times. Lightning reacted and killed the Redcap assassin.
Bleeding I stumbled over and leaned on my staff. Then a massive paw covered my vision and pummelled me into the earth. My blood sprayed and bones flew out of my rendered flesh under the sharp claws of the Cù-Sìth.