A Sudden Change of Plans

In comparison to the first two days of travel, the remainder of our trip east towards Talir’sahn was uneventful. Slowly but surely, the plains had turned to foothills and, eventually, snaking cliffside paths. We moved at a cautious pace, watching our step as much as our surroundings as we made our way ever higher up the mountainous rim towards the forsaken city and our dungeon.

Stopping the group at one point, I stepped through a thicket of brush, revealing the hidden route towards our objective. We spent several minutes on the edge of the road as I explained once more that this was the safer route, and one that the bandits knew nothing of. After finally convincing them that it was in our best interest, I led them off the main road and up an overgrown trail that had become all but forgotten for over a century. And while this was definitely a shorter path than others to our checkpoint, the problematic terrain slowed us even more than the well-worn path we had been travelling.

Eventually reaching the trail's summit as the setting sun shed its last light, we were able to spot the lone, crumbling tower that I had planned to use for our night's rest. I stared through the dim glow of twilight at the vines covering its base, feeling my heart sink as I noticed something unusual. To the front of the structure, trampled vegetation lay around a large, dark hole carved from the stone. The forgotten watch tower had been damaged beyond what I had expected, and it appeared that someone else had taken up the idea of using it as a home for the night.

“Movement,” Aesandoral whispered, addressing my fears with her elven senses. “There’s something big inside the tower.”

“Alright,” I replied. “Let me see.”

Crouching down for cover before moving towards the front of the group, I positioned myself beside Aesandoral for a better look. With strained eyes, I peered through the dim light, noticing what looked to be a gigantic snake for a moment. Then, in the next instant, a massive lion's mane poked from the hole as the beast shifted. My heart suddenly halted as a chill rushed over my body. With this final glance, I had seen enough, knowing exactly what the beast was that had taken up residence in our campsite.

The chimera? I thought, touching my chest and attempting to calm the building anxiety. No. No. No. You're supposed to be at the bottom of the dungeon. Your nest is—you're the final boss, not some pre-combat warm-up.

"Iz," Aesandoral whispered into my mind. "Do you see it? What is that?"

What am I going to tell them? I continued to think, looking over my shoulder at the triop who awaited my response. And if this is up here, something must have forced it from its nest. That means—no, one problem at a time.

"Everyone," I whispered. "Huddle up." 

Stepping back from the clearing around the tower, we took up position behind a particularly dense thicket of shrubs a few minutes away. We formed a small circle around each other before I withdrew the small Phyllis Brand Daylight Orb that I had picked up before leaving the shop. I took a moment to whisper Phyllis's magical words into it, calling forth its power.

"Go, Go, Light-Juice," I spoke softly, suddenly blinded as our group was bathed in eight thousand watts of bottled Moal'aw hate. "Agh, too bright."

"Ack, dummy!" Sharzin hissed as she threw her cape over the orb, absorbing most of the light while creating a spotlight that focused on the ground at our feet. "Careful with that."

"Sorry. Thank you."

"Iz, what was that thing?" Aesandoral now asked once again. "Was that—"

"The chimera. Yeah."

"What?" Rionriv spoke up. "What's it doing here, oracle? You said it was at the bottom of the dungeon?"

"It should have been! But it's here now."

"Then what's at the bottom of the dungeon?"

"We'll worry about that later. First things first—we need to kill this thing here and now."

"And how do we do that?" Sharzin raised the question as she positioned herself beside a nervous-looking Aesandoral. "We don't have the cavern layout for cover against the firebreath. We're exposed here."

"I—"

"I can help with that." Rionriv cut me off. "It's a new spell I just learned last week, but it should help."

"Should?" I groaned. "Real reassuring, Ri."

"Well, I thought I'd have another day or two to practice it, oracle." She replied, shoving my shoulder. "Anyways, this was your plan to begin with. So what's the strategy?"

Taking a moment to think, I stared at the ground beneath our feet. The chimera's strengths and weaknesses bounced around my skull before I considered our new terrain. It was obviously different from the cavern, but ultimately still had tight sections and open ones. This meant the plan wouldn't need to deviate from the original shock-and-awe strategy. With a nod and quiet prayer, I scribble a quick plan of action into the dirt.

I would be upfront, per usual, trying my best not to die while Aesandoral and Sharzin launched sneak attacks from the treeline. Rionriv would be in a similar hiding spot, supercharging any spell but fire magic, seeing as the creature had a resistance to that particular element. Then, when the time was right, she would deliver a catastrophic strike and, hopefully, finish the fight. Though if something went wrong, the sorceress was the one designated to break formation to assist whoever needed it with her new mystery ability.

Luckily, the strategy wasn’t overcomplicated. In fact, it was our typical arrangement, but being on the same page was always preferred to winging it. Teamwork was dreamwork, after all. So, with a plan set, we got into position, and I began the charge.

The first stage of the assault was easy, or supposed to be. Gripping the Phyllis Brand Daylight Orb in my hand, I spoke the magic words once more and threw it into the tower. Immediately, its bright light filled the space, revealing the previously sleeping beast. In an instant, the creature's numerous heads opened a multitude of eyes and winced at the pocket sun.

In that brief moment as I charged forward into combat, I did my best to tense my bowels. I had never come up against something as intense as the beast now before me, and it shook me to my core. Its hulking frame, like coming up against a school bus in combat, took up the entire bottom floor of the tower. A body of lion fur and muscles so jacked you'd think it was getting ready to go to prison, shifted enough to reveal avian talons and ruminant hooves. Folded wings adjusted slightly, as three heads lifted from their slumber, revealing a wyvern covered in red scales, a goat with long horns, and a lion wearing a mane of blood-drenched fur. Then, as the serpent's head affixed to the tail lifted itself to witness me, I knew that there was officially no turning back.

With three of the four heads of the horrid beast distracted by the flash, I lunged forward. Staff in hand, I swung forcefully at the lion's head, striking with a heavy crack before following up with two blows to the eyes of the adjacent goat. In a well-coordinated sneak attack, a pair of arrows from Aesandoral sank into the snake’s head, while a single arrow from Sharzin pierced to the fletching through the wyvern's pupil.

Roars and cries shook the foundation of the tower in the moments before the grievously wounded beast lunged to its feet. Hopping back, I dodged its erratic movements, watching as the flailing body swung side to side in shock and agony. It rammed its body against the weakened walls of its decrepit den, and the structure shook free massive stones that began to tumble from the rapidly deteriorating tower.

Looking up at the tumbling blocks the size of my body, I began to worry about being caught in a collapse. It was in that brief moment of distraction that the beastly head of the snake seized an opportunity to strike. Snapping forward, it bit down onto my torso, driving its cerated fangs into my body. A disturbing warmth flooded into me as poison surged through my veins in a burning pulse that ached more with each beat of my heart. Then, with a fluid motion, the monster flung me into the air, where the ibex-like goat head struck my body hard enough to send me flying back into the clearing.

Unfortunately, at that moment, my mind became focused on my fragile ego. I had become worried about how idiotic I looked to my triop as I flipped through the air like a rag doll. More concerned by how this was the third time in two days that the actual world of Esseria had handed my ass to me on a platter. In actuality, the poison coursing through my veins should have taken precedence over even the blunt force trauma I had just endured, but those thoughts faded to the back of my mind in these brief moments of flight.

Hitting the ground with enough force to keep going, I felt my bones crack, and blood pour from me as I eventually rolled to a stop near the edge of the clearing. My mind raced as I struggled to push myself up, coughing blood over my body in the process of weakly finding my footing. I collapsed back to my knees as the muscles in my arms and legs burned with every pump of my heart pushing the venom through me.

And then, from the tower, the beast began to emerge. Arrows flew from the treeline, careful to never be from the same spot, before driving into the weak, winged joints, and blood-soaked eyes. But the creature ignored the strikes, having locked its baleful gaze on me and my broken state.

This is not good. I thought before seeing the glowing red embers from within the wyvern's maw as it prepared the destructive breath weapon. And that’s worse! Must move. Must move!

I struggled to stand once more on my pained, burning legs, only to feel them give out the instant I applied weight to them. Not thinking clearly, I looked up at the creature from my frozen position, allowing the anxiety to fill me. There were no thoughts of fleeing or dodging, nor of how to protect myself or survive the upcoming assault. I was about to become Esserian Fried Ishara for this chimera, and I couldn't do anything to stop it.

That was when Rionriv appeared. Having rushed in from her cover, she placed herself face-to-face with me. I could see the flames erupting behind her as they blasted towards us, and as they hit her, she cradled a hand to my cheek and smiled.

I watched as red-tinged arcane energy flickered around her body, expanding and contracting against the flames from the attack. Like turbulent rapids around a boulder, the fiery blast split as it was diverted by the magical field that the sorceress had created. I watched as the flames began to die down, revealing that the worst of the attack missed us, with Rionriv taking only some of the damage onto herself.

“That’s how you save someone before they’re on death's door.” She said, wincing as her hand continued to caress my cheek for a moment before reaching over.

Rubbing a finger along my bottom lip, she gently tugged it down, opening my mouth. My heart began to race. The adrenaline of being saved and the same angel leaning in for more only further stunned my consciousness. As her intoxicating aroma toyed with my senses once again, I wanted nothing more than to kiss her.

“Now,” Rionriv whispered, playfully biting at her bottom lip before shoving a healing potion into my mouth. “Drink the fuggin’ potion and cure yourself. I’ll finish this.”

“GYAH! ACK!” I coughed in response.

As I hacked up the elixir that had weaselled its way down my windpipe, I caught what happened next from the corner of my eye. Rionriv stood, turning away from me as she raised her hands to the darkened sky. Lowering them towards the chimera, lightning arced across her body before reaching out to strike at trees, rocks and anything that would ground it. Wind began to swirl around her, whipping at her hair and tugging at her clothes as she focused on the approaching creature. Then, as the electrical storm reached its peak and the gale had begun to pull leaves and debris into a vortex around her, the sorceress lunged ten feet forward, creating a visible wave of concussive energy that tore through the air towards the beast.

Explosive thunder echoed in every direction, knocking me off my feet as the sonic tsunami struck the chimera and sent it back into the wall of its den. This alone was enough force to deal a fatal blow to the building, rattling it enough to send stones downward in mass. The ancient guard post, finally losing its battle with time and elements, crumbled under its own weight and collapsed atop the monstrosity.