The Land: Catacombs (Chaos Seeds Book 4) (24 page)

Richter quickly
Analyzed
one of the monsters to know what they were dealing with. 

River Skath.  Level 14.  Health 310.  Mana 40.  Stamina 350.  These pack hunters hide in the shallows of rivers.  Their diet consists mainly of fish and small land creatures, but they are extremely aggressive.  Skaths are known to attack parties of adventurers who walk along riverbanks.  Their powerful bite is almost impossible to loosen, and skaths will often drown their prey by dragging them to deep water.  Though river skaths are air breathers, they can hold their breath for hours.  The only warning travelers may receive is the occasional air bubble piercing the surface of the water.

Beyan screamed as he was yanked into the water.  The powerful bite of the river skath was as strong as a vise.  When it pulled sharply, the gnome lost his balance and was thrown onto his back.  No one was close enough to help, and Richter feared that if the man was pulled all the way into the river, then he would never resurface.  Praying that it worked this time, Richter raised his hand and released the paralysis spell stored within his ring.  The beam shot towards the skath and locked its body into place.  Richter couldn’t give any more attention to the alchemist’s plight, though, because he was being attacked himself.

Two skaths surged towards him.  Their bodies were compact like Rottweilers, and their heads were oversized to match.  Large serrated teeth lined their gaping mouths and green-brown scales covered their body, the perfect camouflage for hiding in the river.  Their long claws let them gain purchase in the muddy bank, which is how they were able to close with Richter in just a few seconds.

Only two things saved him.  One, his spell-hastened body let him jump backwards and dodge the skaths’ first attack.  Two, Alma was a bit of a badass.  For the first time in battle, she released her improved
Psi Blast
.  The ability had not only become stronger by reaching level two, but it also let her narrow or widen the AoE with a corresponding change in strength.  Richter saw just how powerful the concentrated beam could be.

The effect was obvious and devastating.  The two skaths attacking Richter collapsed to the ground as if their strings had been cut.  A small amount of blood also leaked from their noses and eyes.  Three more also dropped, including the one that had been holding onto Caulder.  That unfortunately meant that Caulder was caught in the blast too.  The sergeant collapsed along with the skath that had bitten him, and his nose and mouth were cast down into the water. 

Terrod rushed to help his sergeant, while another skath was attacking Krom.  The dwarf cried out, “Eat this, ye ugly bastard!” as he swung his ebony hammer diagonally.  His target was the skath’s large head, something that shouldn’t have been hard to miss, but the monster surprised the smith.  It bent its legs and flattened its body so that the heavy sledge passed just over its head.  The black weapon whistled through the air and buried itself in the soft earth of the riverbank.  While Krom tried to free his weapon, the skath sprung up from its hunched position and clamped its powerful jaws on the dwarf’s shoulder.  Krom lost his grip on his weapon and went down with an oath that sounded more like a curse.

Meanwhile, Sedrin and Jean fought together to hold back another three skaths.  The guard had his boar spear pointed towards the three monsters, which were slowly stalking forward undaunted.  Jean had scored a lucky shot and had landed his crossbow bolt in the open mouth of a fourth skath.  It wasn’t dead, but the bolt had pierced the soft tissue on the inside of its throat.  It hacked violently as it choked on its own blood.  The Air mage was trying desperately to reload the crossbow before Sedrin was overwhelmed. 

Sion and Ulinde retreated a small way to give themselves a better field of fire.  The move was almost instinctual, born of thousands of hours each of archery training.  The two men knew they needed to be back from the melee in order to have the greatest effect.  Unfortunately, the skaths that were engaging the other members of the war party were too close to their comrades for the archers to strike at safely.  More monsters were surfacing in the river, though, so the two bowmen kept up a steady rain of arrows, hoping to thin their ranks before they could attack the rest of the war party. 

Battles were raging all around Richter, but he couldn’t rush to his party members’ aid just yet.  He knew that the stun effect from Alma’s
Psi Blast
would only last for a few seconds and he had to kill the skaths in front of him while they were helpless.  He gave Alma an order to help Beyan and then drew his sword.  He stalked towards the two helpless skaths.  He cast
Soul Trap
with his free hand and plunged his sword down through his target’s skull.  Withdrawing the gore-covered blade, he did the same with the other.  A muffled boom echoed from the water, and Richter looked up to see a previously hidden skath reel back not five yards away from his captain.  It had not hidden well enough to escape Sion’s watchful gaze, and the sprite had managed to strike it with an imbued arrow.  The actual arrow strike lost some of its power as the skath was still a foot underwater, but the magic invested into the arrow more than made up for it.

A bloom of red blood spread through the water.  The captain looked up in gratitude at Sion and tried to pick Caulder up out of the water.  The skath that had attacked the sergeant still had a death lock on his arm though.  Not wanting it to regain consciousness while he was struggling to save Caulder, he knew that he had to kill it while it was helpless.  Standing in knee-high water, Terrod drew his sword and stabbed down into the skath’s neck.  He sawed his dusky grey blade back and forth to increase the bleeding, but still the comatose skath maintained its grip.  Knowing he was running out of time, Terrod dropped his sword and grabbed Caulder with both arms.  He slowly dragged both the sergeant and his attacker out of the water.  He silently prayed to the banished gods that the monster died before it could recover its wits, his only hope being that the skath would bleed out before it regained consciousness.  Another boom sounded as Sion struck the hidden skath for a second time, giving Terrod cover as he tried to get his compatriot to safety.  

Krom screamed.  The skath still had its mouth clamped on his shoulder and now had gotten on top of the dwarf.  It was raking his chest with its brutal front claws, and only the high quality of Krom’s chainmail had kept him from being eviscerated.  The defense wouldn’t last long though.  As he fought to get free, links on his armor were already snapping.  He struggled to get to his dagger, but his belt had shifted thanks to the skath’s efforts to maul him and he couldn’t reach the hilt.  Having no other recourse, he just kept pounding his fists against the skath’s hard skull. 

Richter stabbed his two stunned enemies twice more to ensure their deaths, but then a scream grabbed his attention.  Looking over, he saw Beyan had carefully aimed his crossbow and shot the skath that was holding him in the eye.  From the amount of bolt still sticking out of the skull, though, he knew that the gnome’s shot hadn’t penetrated the brain.  The paralysis from Richter’s stored spell had elapsed, and the enraged monster was dragging Beyan into deeper water again.  The gnome screamed in pain as the monster bit harder into his leg, but was saved by Alma.  Diving in, she used her special attack and latched onto the skath’s oversized head.  The animal screamed in agony, which finally loosened its grip on Beyan’s leg. 

The skath tried to shake off its attacker, but its body would no longer obey the command of its mind.  It fell over on its side while Alma continued to drain its memories, health, mana, and stamina.  Beyan’s leg leaked blood into the water, and the pain he was feeling overwhelmed almost everything else.  The one thing that he felt stronger than the agony in his leg, though, was an anger that he spent his life trying to keep at bay.  With a furious shout, he contorted his body so he could reach the crossbow bolt sticking out of the skath’s eye.  Wrapping his hand around the length of metal, he screamed in rage while moving his fist like he was scrambling eggs.  Finally, the bolt aligned with the eye socket and the weapon sunk deeper, penetrating the river skath’s small brain.  The beast's chest deflated as it died.  Alma released her grip on the dead monster and rose back into the air.  She crowed her triumph at another enemy vanquished and immediately started winging back towards her master to protect him from any other threat. 

Beyan slumped down over the body of the river skath, both physically pained and emotionally exhausted.  The sounds of battle continued to echo around him, but before he could even push himself out of the water, he saw a telltale line of bubbles breaking the surface of the river in front of him.  The disturbance was only twenty feet away and it started moving swiftly towards him.  With a cry he threw himself backwards.  His hand extended towards the dead skath, and purple-black energy dance on his fingertips. 

While Alma had been draining the skath attacking Beyan, Terrod had managed to get Caulder safely out of the river.  The guard sergeant recovered from Alma’s
Psi Blast
and fell to his knees, coughing up the river water he had swallowed.  Luckily, the skath that had been attacking him had indeed bled to death, relaxing its bite as it died.  Terrod drew a dagger to protect the sergeant while he purged the river from his lungs.

Sedrin’s fight was not going well.  He had plunged his spear into one of the skaths while the other two lunged.  A speeding blue arrow struck the one directly in front of him, but the third skath rammed the guard in his side.  Its oversized, thickened skull made the perfect battering ram, and Sedrin went down.  He fell onto his chest and the skath that had body checked him bit savagely into his leg.  The teeth penetrated the chainmail leggings, but they at least kept the skath from tearing off a bloody chunk.  He screamed as the skath he had stabbed rushed forward as well.  Sedrin threw up an arm to keep the skath away from his face, but the monster just began to savage his extended hand.  It bit off two fingers, then proceeded to bite and destroy the rest of his hand.  Sedrin screamed.  He screamed.

The Air mage jumped on the back of the skath that was chewing on Sedrin’s leg.  All he had was a steel dagger though.  With Jean’s low Strength, the blade barely broke through the monster’s hide.  Each attack drew a small amount of blood, but did little else.  Jean didn’t stop though.  He kept stabbing, but the monster beneath him kept mauling Sedrin’s leg and the guard kept screaming. 

Richter finally made his way through the river mud to help his fallen guardsmen.  Another imbued arrow from Sion struck the skath that was attacking Sedrin’s hand.  It was knocked to the side, but the guard lost another finger as its mouth was ripped away.  Richter ran through the mud to attack it while it was vulnerable, stabbed his short sword into its soft underbelly, and yanked the sharp blade up.  With a red spray, the skath’s guts spilled out onto the ground.  It still struggled to get to its feet, but before it could manage it, Richter extended his hand and cast
Flame I. 
Fire shot out from his hand and burned the river skath’s flesh.  The entrails and skin burned faster than he would have thought possible, and in a few seconds the skath stopped moving. 

While her master killed his third skath, Alma had latched onto the head of the monster attacking Sedrin’s leg.  Its jaw loosened and it fell to the ground twitching.  Jean tumbled free from its back and stumbled over to bandage Sedrin’s bleeding wounds.  Delirious with pain, the man continued to thrash, not understanding that Jean was trying to help him.  His wounds bled heavily.  Richter ran back over and thrust his short sword into the skath Alma was draining.  He thrust his sword into it repeatedly, until it finally died as well. 

While all of this was happening, Krom had finally managed to draw his cobalt dagger and was desperately stabbing the skath on top of him in the neck, over and over.  The tips of its back claws had made their way through the chainmail on his abdomen and had pierced his stomach in several places.  The dwarf’s organs remained inside his body, but his stomach was a bloody mess.  He kept stabbing, hoping to kill the beast or at least take it with him through death’s door, but his vision began to grow dark.  His fingers were losing strength.  He knew his fight was done, but then, strength suddenly surged through his body again!  Richter’s Life magic began to knit skin and muscle back together, and Krom found the will to stab the creature with renewed vigor.  Suddenly, the creature shivered and fell atop the dwarf, hundreds of pounds of dead weight.  Krom didn’t know how his awkwardly positioned strikes had managed to slay the beast, but he was relieved that it was dead.  A second later, Krom discovered the answer to the riddle.  He hadn’t killed the skath, his lord had. 

Richter withdrew his sword from the skath’s body.  The chaos seed gave Alma a mental order to summon a life wisp and then stuck his sword in the ground.  He grabbed the jaws of the monster lying on top of the smith and pulled with all of his might.  In his Earth body there was no way that he would have been able to manage this, but with his Strength attribute of thirty-two it was well within his capability.  He felt the sinews of the skath’s jaws snap, but he was able to loosen its hold on Krom’s shoulder and then kick it off of the dwarf.  Krom got to his feet, cursing up a storm.  His arm was hanging limp.

“Where is my hammer?” the dwarf raged.

“It doesn’t matter where.  Hang back and heal yourself and Sedrin,” Richter commanded.

“I can fight!” Krom spat. 

“You’re a healer now.  Sedrin is dying.  Help him!”

Krom looked at the bleeding man.  His face looked like he had just swallowed something awful, but he did as commanded.  Caulder and Terrod made their way over to stand with Richter as more bubbles raced towards them from the river.  Four more skath surfaced and began stalking forward.  Behind them, came another one that was half again as large as the others.  Richter
Analyzed
it.