By the time I heard the pounding of hooves approaching and felt the cool shimmering energy with a slight feel of death approaching, the ground around me was saturated in the deep maroon of the wolfmen's blood and I could only faintly feel Khan and Jackual's energy. I realized what I was about to do too late to reclaim control of my body from my subconscious. I dropped the crystal and sliced open the back of my hand using the blood to form a dome of ice that protected me from the wave of energy as it washed over the wolf men. My thoughts clawed their way back to the forefront of my mind and my sword tumbled from my fingers as every muscle and bone in my body instantly reported its distaste with the amount of abuse inflicted by what, I realized, must have been more than half an hour of fighting.
My training sessions with Melisande usually lasted hours if not all day but even that kind of practice couldn't prepare a body for half an hour of continuous combat against multiple enemies. The dome of ice had drained away all the energy I'd managed to steal in the fighting and I couldn't hold together the mental blocks that had prevented the pain and exhaustion from overwhelming me. Someone started pounding on the side of the blood ice dome while I knelt trying to pull together enough strength. I couldn't lift a sword, but I still had at least two dozen potions in my pockets. If I was going to die, I was going to make whoever killed me bear the marks of it. I struggled to my feet and pulled a small vial of purple liquid out of a pocket as someone started knocking harder on the side of the dome of red tinted ice.
“It's no use Lady Arianrhod, the ice won't melt or crack unless he wants it to.”
“Jackual? When this is over I'm kicking your ass. You were supposed to take us to Gwynn's court and instead we end up in her realm? Your aim is worse than a drunken Olympian's. Bad aim aside Lady, he's right though, it's not going away unless I want it to. And don't bother threatening. I know your reputation, Arianrhod. However, I'll make you a deal. Walk away and let us depart in peace and I won't use all the potions and enchanted crystals I have with me to slaughter your army and scar your pretty face. I always find it a waste to have to maim a woman as attractive as yourself.”
“Gwirionyn llanc! If I wanted you and yours dead, I could have waited until after your fight with the battle pack to attack. Your grandson was quite successful in getting the Lord of Arawnn's attention, however he sent you here first. I would have arrived sooner were I not speaking with him about his request. He's arranged a deal with me if you’re willing to accept what he's offering before you see him. However, I will not speak to you through a wall of ice like some leper to be shunned!”
Crap, I was going to have a few choice words for Gwynn when I saw him. The last thing I wanted was to involve anymore deities in my life right now, and if I kept the dome in place she was more than capable of out waiting me. That and pissing off a goddess of reincarnation probably wasn’t something that ended in anyone’s favor, there’s a reason you don’t hear many legends about mortals angering them- the ones that do generally don’t live long enough to brag about it.
“My apologies then. Khan, what's the condition of our company?”
“Sleeping. I think. Whatever she did has them all out cold though they seem to be breathing. A lot of them don't seem to be healing from that sword of yours anymore.” I grunted and picked up the dropped crystal, with a little work the enchantments on it could be reversed and I didn’t like sharing novel weapons with others. Satisfied I hadn’t left any other items in my immediate vicinity I tapped the side of the dome; letting it crumble as I reclaimed the energy I’d used to make it. Khan was right, most of the wolfmen were sleeping and it looked like the mix of cutting and feeding on them through the crystal had slowed or stopped their healing. I'd have to remember that if another group came after me. Both Jackual and Khan had seen better days and bore a number of minor injuries that I could see were taking a toll on them and now that the shock of battle and adrenaline were fading, I could feel a number of injuries on my own body as well that hadn’t properly or fully healed.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Alright Arianrhod, tell me about this offer of Gwynn's. I don't have a lot of time. I still need to speak with the man himself about an impending crisis.” I couldn't help but notice that the legends hadn't done Arianrhod much justice. True she was beautiful but there was an almost delicate quality to her that the masterfully crafted suit of armor she wore managed to highlight rather than hide, the armor was functional rather than the form fitting sort that filled modern fantasy artwork. It was still a work of beauty with faintly visible blue and green shimmers moved lazily across its surface almost mimicking an aurora. Her skin was the pale cream of polished ivory the contrast it made against the faint ribbons of color dancing in the deep twilight blue of her eyes and the silver hair she’d left loose under the simple braided silver circlet she wore was almost hypnotic. Despite their moniker as “the little people” few of the Tylwyth Teg were short and Arianrhod herself would have been able to look me in the eyes without tilting her head if she wasn’t currently looking down at me from horseback.
“I'd like to offer you the hospitality of Caer Arianrhod. My cousin is on his way to meet you here. We can discuss the details of his offer while we wait and you rest. My guards should be along shortly to finish these off, poor fools are close to death anyways. It seems some enterprising Guardian felt the need to poison them with their own energy. A pity it won't take longer. I detest trespassers onto my lands.” I shook my head and tried to push aside a dizzying wave of exhaustion. Something told me falling down in front of a vengeful goddess of reincarnation could be bad.
“We would be honored to accept your offer of hospitality Lady, I believe all of us could do with some rest, and it would seem my companions are in need of healing as well.” I glanced behind her to the group of mounted soldiers. “I don't suppose you brought spare mounts? I'm not sure Jackual is able to walk that far in his condition. First however I have something to finish.”
I walked across the field turning over the occasional face down wolfman until I found Séaghdha and Iapetos lying unconscious near each other, both their weapons shattered and their armor scored and dented, apparently they had been the most zealous of the fighters until they were overwhelmed. I riffled through my pockets until I found a small carved blue jade dragon holding a tiny quartz marble. I held the small carving with my mouth and grabbed the two wolfmens' arms and started feeding until I had enough energy for what I wanted, then sent a pulse of power into both of them to wake them up.
“Welcome back to the land of the living. I've had a pretty bad week so far and your clan's actions are making it worse. Fortunately for them I have better things to spend my time on then fighting battles against you. So here's the deal I'm going to offer you. One of you is going to take a message back. You get to decide which one of you is making it back mostly in one piece.” I looked at the two of them and waited. I shouldn't have been surprised that it was Séaghdha that spoke first.
“I'll see you dead for this human. The next group we bring against you will be greater than any force you can imagine.” I rolled my eyes and slapped the Jade dragon against his head.
“I know how you operate, thirty failed, so you sent fifty-five for me. This force failed so the next group is going to be a full battalion. It doesn’t matter to you now though.” I reached through the crystal in the small figure and pulled all the energy I could from Séaghdha until I felt the quivering snap of tension that told me he was dead, fortunately the filters I’d built into the crystal worked and all I took was his life instead of taking his memories and personality into myself.
“Congratulations Iapetos, you get to live. You're going to take your pack leader’s corpse back with you. Tell your elders that the contract isn't worth the cost. If they send another pack after me I will hunt them down and kill them. Tell them that the head of the First Tactical will bring all of his power and allies against them. This is a family matter to be handled between me and the person who issued the contract.” I stood and gestured behind me to Khan before turning and walking back to face Arianrhod.
“You know what to do Khan. I want the message to be clear. Lady Arianrhod, my apologies for any inconvenience I may have caused you by bringing my problems with me to your realm. Perhaps we should leave before matters here become much messier.” The goddess smiled bemusedly and tilted her head.
“My cousin brought the trouble, not you old one. I appreciate the gesture, not many guests will resolve their problems with so brilliant a display of martial prowess. Come then. We can leave your companion to his gruesome work while we discuss the matters at hand.” Nobody bothered looking back when Iapetos started to scream.
