Feral Mage 3: Chapter 9

Bryce felt the bitter cold forming in his throat again as he raced toward Janna, Callie following closely behind him. Janna was keeping most of the fairies at bay with her Fire Magic, forcing the swarm to break up into smaller clusters to avoid the flame, but Bryce knew it was just a matter of time. He could see a few clinging to the back of her gambeson, tearing at the padding. Soon, they would break through the armor and start carving their way into her body.

“Take care of the swarms and I’ll get Janna,” Callie yelled over the buzzing of hundreds of fairy wings.

The first swarm Bryce arrived at, he released the Ice Breath he had been holding. The fairies tried to flee from the white mist, but most slowed and fell. He stomped on any he saw trying to move on the ground as he pursued the swarm, pulling on the new ability of his Pale Queen Aspect.

Thoughts about what the four-eyed woman had done to his magic would flare up in his mind, only to be pushed away as he focused on killing the fairies. He could ponder what had happened and what it meant once the girls were safe.

“Focus on the ones in front of you,” Callie said to Janna.

Bryce glanced at the girls, seeing Callie pulling the little pests off the back of Janna’s gambeson, crushing them with her gauntleted hands. He heard pings on her armor as the little bastards dived down at her, trying to find flesh to bite into.

He caught a blur in the corner of his eye just as one of the fairies landed on his neck. Bryce swore as his chitin-covered hand reached for the fairy, already feeling its jagged teeth taking bites out of him. He ripped it away from his neck, feeling warm blood running down it, and got his first good look at the pest.

The Carrion Fairy resembled a humanoid grasshopper with four arms, two legs, and a body armored in brown chitin. The creature struggled in his hand, making the chirping laughter common to all species of fairies. The almost whimsical and human sound they made had tricked many into believing fairies were tiny winged elves.

Bryce had believed that once, before he met Bellamy. His grandfather would tell stories about them, claiming they were a magical race living deep in the woods of the wilds and describing them as having a friendly and childlike nature. He had been disappointed when Bellamy revealed the truth to him.

Frost spread across the struggling fairy’s body before Bryce crushed and dropped it, then turned his attention to the nearest swarm. The warmth of blood on his neck from the bite was a reminder that he couldn’t let himself get distracted. He needed to trust Callie.

Two of the swarms were coming for him, no doubt the smell of an open wound drawing them. A fireball collided with one of the swarms as he prepared his Ice Breath again. Right as he released it on the swarm, a deafening roar echoed around them. The remaining fairies flew toward the sky as he heard the beating of wings.

“Look out!” Callie screamed.

A stabbing pain hit Bryce in his leg, back, and shoulder, dropping him to his knee. He saw spikes pepper the bridge around him like arrows. Fear filled him as he looked to the trunk where Vex and Omelet were hiding. Thankfully, the spikes hadn’t gone that far, then he looked over to where Callie and Janna were.

He saw Callie wrapped around Janna, shielding the kitsune with her body. Spikes jetted out of the snow elf’s armor, and even from where Bryce was, he could see blood seeping around the puncture marks.

“Callie!” Bryce yelled.

“I’m fine!” she retorted through gritted teeth.

He knew the snow elf well enough to know that was bullshit and she was hurt. Before he could say as much, or even move toward her and Janna, the wyvern made another pass, this time landing on the bridge. Its body was the width of the bridge itself, and it climbed over the flipped wagon. White quills covered the face, back, and tail of the wyvern, giving it an armored appearance against the light brown of its scales. A putrid stench hung in the air as it approached them.

Bryce’s heart raced as the monster stepped over the trunk Vex was in, and he looked between where it lay under the wyvern and where Janna and Callie were. His mind reeled with what to do as he focused back on the monster and grimaced at what he saw.

He now knew why the Carrion Fairies were here, why the wyvern wasn’t with its pack, and the horrible stench. A festering wound marked the right side of the wyvern’s chest, Carrion Fairies moving in and out of it like a beehive. The Quill Wyvern was infested with the smaller monsters.

How the hell is it still alive?

The tip of the wyvern’s tail flicked back and forth, creating a rattling noise from the quills covering it. The beast’s sickly eyes locked on Bryce. He knew any second it would whip the tail toward him, Callie, and Janna, flinging more of the projectiles. He didn’t doubt that as soon as the fight started, the fairies would pour out of the wound in swarms.

Bryce came to a decision and drew his sword, locking eyes with the wyvern as he pulled on his Primal Troll Aspect, becoming a chimera. His muscles grew taut as he moved to the parapet of the bridge, climbing onto it, the wyvern’s head following him.

“Janna,” Bryce said, not breaking his gaze from the winged lizard. “When it leaves the bridge, get everyone to the wagon and head to the garrison town as fast as you can. Stay there, don’t look for me.”

Before she could protest and draw the wyvern’s attention from him, Bryce threw his sword at the creature. He watched as the blade left a gash under the wyvern’s eye, and it roared at him.

“Come get me, you bastard!” Bryce yelled as he jumped from the bridge.

He knew this was a gamble, and he hoped he had pissed the creature off enough to follow him instead of going for the girls. Trying to fight it on the bridge would be the death of someone, either Vex being trampled within the trunk, or Callie and Janna being killed by the wyvern or fairies. This way was the best odds for the girls to make it out alive.

A sensation of relief filled him as he saw the wings of the wyvern launch the beast into the air, the creature’s jaw agape as it swooped down from the bridge after him. Bryce drew a deep breath, preparing to use the Ice Breath against it. With luck, it would keep the monster from pulling out of its dive and crashing into the river below with him.

Then I just have to survive the fall and kill it.

He released the freezing mist as the wyvern neared him, and both approached the rushing river. The jaws emerged from the mist, and Bryce lifted his chitin-covered arm up to block the bite. He felt the chitin crack as the wyvern’s teeth dug into him and its wings spread out, pulling it out of the dive and dragging him over the river's surface, his feet almost touching the water.

The wings beat again, and the beast started to rise above the river, carrying Bryce by his arm. Pain rippled through the limb as the wyvern’s fangs chewed at the chitin, only for the Primal Troll’s healing to repair it. Blood soaked his shirt sleeve, and he saw the Carrion Fairies emerge from the wyvern’s wound, crawling along its scales toward him and the scent of fresh blood.

He pulled against the wyvern’s jaw with the arm it held, leveraging himself up to rake his other clawed hand against its face. The Ice Magic in his claws froze the scales on that side of the monster’s head. The wyvern thrashed in response as ice formed over one of its eyes. Bryce swore as every bone in the arm it held broke, healed, and broke again. He knew if it weren’t for the healing of the Primal Troll Aspect and the chitin gauntlet of the Pale Queen Aspect, he’d have already lost the arm.

The fairies were still crawling along the wyvern and had reached its head. Bryce prepared his Ice Breath for when they tried to attack him, only for the fairies to start to dig on the wyvern’s skin where he had made the cut by throwing his sword. The beast’s jaws opened before it whipped its head, flinging the fairy off it and snapping it out of the air with a bite. Bryce fell toward the river as the Quill Wyvern's attention went to the small swarm moving toward the wound, the large monster shaking and snapping the air.

He felt the air leave his lungs as he collided with the cold river water, plunging under its surface. Before he struck the bottom or recovered from the fall, the currents took hold and swept him along the river. The Primal Troll Aspect kept healing him as the current slammed him into rocks, all while Bryce struggled to reach the surface to gasp for air.

When he collided with the rocks along the river, he tried to cling to them with his clawed hands. Usually, the surface of the stone was too slick, and he would lose his grip before the Pale Queen’s Claws formed enough ice on the surface to support him. The fifth rock he was bashed against was the one where enough ice formed to hold him, and Bryce dragged himself out of the river.

He scanned the sky, expecting the Quill Wyvern to be upon him shortly, only to see it as a speck flying deeper into the forest. Bryce drew a haggard breath as he watched the dot fade into the distance, then he turned to look at the bridge further down the river. The wyvern had carried him a good distance from the structure, but Bryce was close enough to see that their wagon was gone.

“Poor hunt, my champion, my chimera…” the voice whispered in his ear. “Your prey got away.”

He felt her lightly playing with his hair as she spoke, and Bryce sneered.

“Not much I can do while dangling from its damn jaw by my arm,” Bryce growled.

“Then perhaps I was wrong…” she said, her voice cold. “About giving you this power.”

The light caress of her fingers moved to his back, and Bryce let out a scream as they became claws and slashed him. He still had both the Primal Troll and Pale Queen Aspects active, but the wound refused to heal. Instead, he felt the monsters start to tear at his soul, just as they had when he had first become a chimera to save Alice from the assassin back in the Red Pine Kingdom. He tried to drop the Aspects, but they refused.

“My goal wasn’t to kill it! It was for the girls to escape!” Bryce yelled. “I couldn’t keep them safe fighting that bastard on the bridge!”

He was hunched over on the shore of the river, feeling the monsters tear at his very being, only for it to stop. The monsters’ souls calmed, and he felt the wound on his back heal.

“You did it for the safety of your pack,” she said, her voice thoughtful. “Now I understand. Survival, not weakness.”

He felt her hand play with his hair and again lightly caress along his back where she had slashed him.

“Who are you?” Bryce asked as he dropped both Aspects.

She made an amused hum as she stopped touching him.

“I’ve told you once, but perhaps this time you will remember,” she whispered as memories of a stone throne in a ruined castle flooded back into his mind. “I am known here as Ciarra. Don’t disappoint me, my champion, my chimera…”