The Land: Catacombs (Chaos Seeds Book 4) (25 page)

Bull River Skath.  Level 34.  Health 760.  Mana 210.  Stamina 610.  The larger of the species, male river skath are often solitary creatures.  Unlikely to attack unless threatened.  The exception to this is during mating season when one bull will mate with an entire pack of females.  Travelers have come to fear meeting a bull in this scenario as their normal solitary nature is replaced with a horrible belligerence.  They can also release magical pheromones to increase the ferocity and strength of female skaths.

Richter shook his head.  “This shit just keeps getting better and better.  Sion!  Ulinde!  Take out the big one!”

Richter heard Krom muttering an incantation to summon a weak life wisp as Terrod took position on his right and Caulder stood to his left.  Seeing Terrod holding only a dagger, he gritted his teeth, then said, “Take this.  Shit’s about to get interesting!”

He shoved his sword into the captain’s grasp and then extended his hands.  The skaths were only a couple yards away now, staring at the villagers with their teeth bared.  The bull skath stood right behind them, and Richter saw a green glow start to surround it.  They were out of time.  “Let’s do it!”

Sion released, and the blue arrow streaked forward and struck the bull on its haunch with a loud boom.  Ulinde’s shot struck the bull on the snout.  Frost spread outward from the wound.  Neither attack stopped the bull skath’s ability, though, and a green mist shot out from its body in all directions for forty feet.  It surrounded all of the female skaths, whose claws grew longer and whose muscles grew more defined before Richter’s very eyes.  Each also seemed to grow several inches in both height and width.  The transformation was
almost
amazing enough to distract from the disgusting fact that he had just gotten bull skath pheromone in his mouth.  As he spat it out in irritation, he finally understood the point that Jenny Vanderhorne had tried to make when he was fifteen: you just don’t do that without asking for permission!  He channeled his anger and after a one second cast, his hands snapped together and bathed the lead skath in orange flame.

Buffed or not, the skath couldn’t withstand the flames and it scurried away from the assault to take refuge in the river.  Before Richter could pursue, the other skaths attacked.  The skaths to the far left and right engaged Caulder and Terrod respectively.  The inner two, however, attacked Richter directly.  He swept his flame towards the one on the left, which shied away, but it left him completely open to attack on the right.

The skath jumped forward with its mouth open.  Its hormone enraged eyes were bulging as it swiftly closed the distance.  There was no way that Richter could dodge, but once again, his soul familiar saved the day.  Lightning fired from above and struck the skath, short-circuiting its system.  Three hundred pounds of enraged river skath cow struck Richter at the speed of a run, but it didn’t have the ability to bite down for a couple crucial seconds.

Nonetheless, Richter was knocked down, with the skath falling to his side.  When he hit the ground he looked over to see the skath’s stunned form, the mouth not six inches from his face.  He swiftly rolled away as it struggled to regain its wits.  Before he had gone more than a foot, though, a massive set of jaws closed on his left thigh.  The skath that Richter had burned had rejoined the fight.

Caulder and Terrod did their best to stand firm against the assault of their respective skaths.  They both knew that they had to keep the skaths away from the injured party members.  Even with the elementum sword, though, the magically enraged skath attacking Terrod was barely kept at bay.  Caulder had already received another bleeding injury to the hip.  A constant staccato of booms told the story of Sion’s attack on the bull skath, but the sprite wasn’t able to put much energy into each strike because of the speed of attack.

Krom saw all of this while he knelt over Sedrin’s still form.  The man still breathed thanks to the dwarf’s healing spells, but he had swooned and was defenseless.  Jean was busy casting
Haste I
on all of the party members and was still trying to reload his crossbow.  Caulder went down as a skath rushed forward and bit his leg.  Terrod was pulled farther from the group, trying to keep his opponent at bay.  Richter was stabbing the skath biting him with a dagger, but it wasn’t releasing its savage hold, and the only reason he hadn’t been killed by the other was that Alma was attached to its head.  The skath was down, but the dragonling was also out of the fight.  To make matters worse, the larger skath was almost close enough to join the fight again despite Sion and Ulinde’s withering fire.  When he saw two more shambling forward through the river, he knew that the fight was over. 

The two skaths approached Terrod and the reptile he was fighting.  The captain came to the same conclusion as Richter, knowing that he couldn’t hold off three.  As he prepared for a last suicidal lunge, his only thought was of Isabella.  Before he could complete his attack, though, the two skaths surged forward… and bit into the skath Terrod had been fighting.  None could ever say who was more surprised, the beleaguered monster or him, but Terrod wasn’t going to waste the moment.  The two skaths had bitten into its left arm and leg.  The monster roared in protest, but Terrod wasn’t interested in fair.  The captain shoved the green sword through its open mouth and up into its brain.  Its body froze for a second before crumpling to the ground.

Terrod withdrew the sword and prepared to defend himself from the other two, but they were already shambling towards the bull skath.  Now that he had a moment, he could clearly see that one had a crossbow bolt sticking out of its eye and the other had a fist-sized hole in its side dripping black ooze.  A loud shout made him look to the right just in time to see Beyan thrust his hand forward and finish an incantation.  A purple-black disc with a white chattering skull in the middle shot from the gnome’s hand and struck the bull skath broadside.  It rocked back from the blow and roared in pain for the first time.

Terrod stared at the alchemist in disbelief, but then Richter’s scream of pain brought him back to the reality of the moment.  He turned around and saw that his liege was straining to keep the snapping jaws of a skath away from his face.  Krom had joined the fight and was bashing the skath in the head with a rock, but between the monster’s thick skull and its enraged status, it barely noticed the smith’s futile efforts.

Jean had finally loaded another bolt, but couldn’t get a clear shot on anyone, so he just kept the crossbow up and waited for his moment.  Terrod ran forward a few more feet and plunged the short sword hilt deep into the skath attacking Richter.  The pain of the blade piercing its internal organs got through to the monster in a way that Krom’s rock bashing had not.  It reared on its hind legs as its back arched in pain.  Blood sprayed on Terrod and Krom’s faces as the captain withdrew the sword. 

Damaged, but not defeated, Richter snarled up at the skath from his position underneath it.  Before it had time to fall again, he forced a spell form to coalesce in his mind as he made the necessary movements with both hands.  His wrists clapped together of their own volition and he spat, “IGNO!”  A gout of orange flame shot up into the skath’s belly, roasting it.  Again, the skin blackened and charred faster than should have been possible.  The monster reared back even further to escape the dreaded fire, and its back legs slipped out from underneath it.  As it crashed to the ground, Richter sat up, keeping an unrelenting stream of fire on the skath.  It rolled on the ground, but was too overcome with pain to form the coherent thoughts needed for escape.  As the skath screamed and squirmed under the onslaught, Terrod shouted for Richter to cease his attack so he could finish the beast.  Richter, savoring his enemy’s pain, heard nothing.

It took Krom grabbing his arm and shouting that they still had to fight the big one for him to stop his spell.  With the horrible heat gone, Terrod stabbed the skath in the abdomen.  Its flesh crumbled like charcoal and the captain met almost no resistance as the blade claimed the skath’s life. 

Richter stood up and looked around, taking stock of the situation.  The archers had scored against the bull skath multiple times, but it showed no signs of slowing.  Jean had managed to fire and successfully hit the skath that had been fighting Caulder, judging by the bolt sticking from the creature’s side.  The sergeant must have used the distraction to attack and behead the river monster.  An overlarge reptilian head lay next to the body, weakening spurts of blood still coming from its ragged stump of a neck.  Alma had finished draining her skath and was hovering in the air nearby.  Sedrin was still passed out, but the bleeding had slowed thanks to tourniquets Krom had fashioned out of strips from his shirt.  The dwarf had regained his hammer.  His shoulder was healed enough to hold the large weapon, but he was still clearly favoring one side.  Terrod stood ready with the elementum sword held down at his side, staring at the bull skath, and Beyan stood far off to the side, looking between the last skath and his party.  His face was a collision of fear, anger, and uncertainty.  Richter turned his attention to the bull river skath.

The entire party had stopped their attack and were watching the confusing tableau focused around the male skath.  The large monster was still fighting one of the traitorous skath cows that had come to Terrod’s aid.  The other had been torn in half, though the top half still seemed to be trying to reach the bull by clawing its way forward on its front paws.  The remaining skath was down on its back with the bull’s massive foreleg on its abdomen.  As Richter watched, the bull bit down on one of the smaller skath’s legs and, with a massive wrench, pulled the leg free.  A spray of blood covered the ground at the moment of separation, but no more blood spurted from the severed shoulder.  The skath didn’t scream or give any indication that the loss of its limb troubled it, it just kept trying to bite the bull.

Richter stared at it, confused.  He activated
Analyze. 

Weak Reanimated River Skath.  Level 3. Health 120.  Mana 0.  Stamina 450.  The corpse of a river skath that has been reanimated.  The level of this reanimated monster is substantially reduced and its values and characteristics are adjusted accordingly.   The exception to this is that its stamina is increased.  It will feel no pain and will only be destroyed by massive tissue trauma or damage to its central nervous system.  

Richter wasn’t sure how much longer the small zombie would distract the bull, but he didn’t think it would be long.  He cast
Slow Heal I
and then focused on the present moment.  He cleared his mind, and his hands wove in sync.  Words of Power flowed from his tongue.  Each syllable grew harder to speak until it felt like he was trying to swallow a cracker after being denied water for a week.  Despite that, he knew that this fight had to end.  Sedrin had to be taken home as soon as possible, where Sumiko could minister to him.  So Richter focused his entire will upon the casting and forced the final sound from his lips.  The casting was complete.

Richter felt the power he had manifested pierce the skein of reality, and a six-foot-tall green disc appeared in the air.  The scent of evergreen flooded his nostrils, and a creature stepped through the gateway.  This saproling was larger than the last and it took the form of a five-and-a-half-foot-tall grass-covered stag with prehensile tentacles rising from its back.  Richter’s head felt like it was splitting open from the strain of finishing the dual casting, but he mustered the fortitude to shout, “Attack!”

Sion and Ulinde resumed their fire upon the monster, which roared in response.  It ripped the head off of the skath underneath it, and the small creature collapsed, limp, to the muddy bank.  The skath ran at the party, but was intercepted by the saproling.  The earth creature rammed its horns into the bull.  The black prongs on top of the stag’s head pierced the monster in the neck and chest.  The bull roared again, trying to bring its sharp claws to bear against the saproling, but the tentacles on the summoned creature’s back whipped forward to wrap around the front limbs and thick neck of its enemy. 

Sion and Ulinde continued their ranged attack and Beyan cast his skull spell again.  Another dark purple disc with a white skull in the middle shot from his hand and impacted against the bull.  Both monster and saproling were staggered by the spell, but didn’t fall.  Jean shot his crossbow at the struggling pair, but ended up hitting the saproling instead.  Luckily, the mage’s poor aim didn’t seem to have an effect either way. 

Terrod looked at Caulder and said, “Shall we join the fun?”

Caulder plucked at his bloodied chainmail and said, “I didn’t get all dressed up for nothing!”  Both guards ran in to attack the bull from the sides.

A snapping noise brought Richter’s attention to the fact that the saproling could not match strength for strength with the powerful bull.  Already the monster had pulled one of its arms free, severing the vines holding it in the process as well as snapping off part of the saproling’s horn.  Unlike the first saproling Richter had summoned, this one did not remain mute.  It screamed in an all too human voice as it was ripped apart by the skath. 

Richter ran forward but stayed out of the general melee.  He cast
Slow I. 
A blue aura surrounded the bull for a split second and afterwards, it was just a touch slower.  Terrod and Caulder attacked from either side, drawing blood, but not achieving any true damage against its thick scales and head.  Beyan seemed to not have another offensive spell, and the cooldown on the last had not elapsed, so he was more or less useless for the moment.  Once again, the archers couldn’t fire with impunity for fear of striking their comrades, and Krom’s ability to fight had been greatly compromised.  Whatever had happened to his shoulder was a type of injury that
Slow Heal I
couldn’t fix.  The battle was up to Richter, Terrod, and Caulder, he realized.