Grim Shift

The next moment, Rionriv was gone. A bolt of lightning cut through the darkness, illuminating the world as it travelled. Using the crocmaws as lightning rods, she connected quickly with each of the remaining beasts. Thirteen in total dropped to the ground as the crackle of electricity and booms of thunder echoed through the cavern.

After the last beast fell, Rionriv reappeared at my side as suddenly as she had disappeared. I watched as her electric smile faded. Within seconds, her eyes rolled back into her head her body wobbled.

Falling to my knees, I caught the sorceress as she collapsed. Cradling her head, I looked down at her unconscious body. With a brush of her hair to the side to get a better look at her face, I noticed something new about her. Twisting one of the locs in my fingers, it became apparent that the tips of her fiery red hair had become the same neon blue of her lightning strikes.

“Ri,” I shook her softly and then a bit harder. “Ri! Wake up. Aes, Zin, I need—”

“Iz!” Aesandoral cried, drawing my attention immediately.

I looked at her kneeling over an unconscious Sharzin. Even from here, I could see black veins reaching up the neck towards her face.

Bah-dump! Bah-dump! Bah-dump!

My heart raced as panic consumed my thoughts.

Crap! I didn’t get it all? Crap. Crap. Crap. Fug. Crap. What do I do?

I couldn’t leave Ri. But Sharzin needed help. That said, I was already feeling the fatigue of magic drain, meaning there was no way I’d have the magic left to heal her properly. That potion consumed my energy like crazy, an apparent side effect of the spell, as Rionriv had just figured out. Sharzin was going to die if I—

Holy crap, I just started shaking Ri. I didn’t even check if she was dying.

I immediately touched Ri’s neck and felt the faint but stable pulse. My heart fluttered for a second. The relief I felt that she was still alive was overwhelming, and then I realized something.

Thuh-thump! Thuh-thump!

We were in quite the romantic situation, all the way down to how I was cradling her. I was gently caressing her neck, looking down at her face, inches away, as I listened to her soft breathing. If this were a cheap romance novel, I’d steal a kiss from her in this moment.

“Iz!” Aesandoral yelled anxiously, snapping me out of my inappropriately timed trance. “The healing potion isn’t working!”

“It won’t,” I responded firmly. “That bite is potent. It needs magical—wait!”

It dawned on me that there was something that could be used. A powerful antibacterial substance along the streambed that we slid down. And, when paired with a recently acquired forage—

YEEEERAAAAAWWWW!!! A screech echoed from a tunnel behind Aesandoral and Sharzin, chilling my blood once again.

“Go forth!” I commanded the orb, pointing to Aesandoral.

The light reached its limit and illuminated the space. Four crocmaw corpses appeared in the light as, standing over them, a towering pale beast bared its teeth with a snarling hiss. A lizard, standing nearly ten feet tall while on all fours, hungrily looked down at the two prone archers.

This was Goram, the white terror of level two.

Attempting to use my lightning dash, it failed to activate. I was out of moves and could only watch as the lizard charged my companion.

“Aes!” I cried out.

Ahh-whoooo!—

A pair of young wolves leapt out from the darkness, sinking their teeth into the monster. With a shriek of pain, the reptile reared up, trying to fling the beasts from its scaly hide. The wolves held firmly to the creature with jaws locked into their pound of flesh.

Oh damn, that’s right. We have wolves. Where the hell’ve they been this whole time?!

I sensed something over my shoulder, that feeling of being watched. Instinctively turning to face it, I leapt into the air and threw my hands up defensively as magic channelled into my forearms. In an instant, a globule of blue fire pierced the darkness towards my position.

Flinching, I swung my body into a defensive stance, feeling the magic shift to my hands. Instinctually, I cupped them and dug into the volleyball of fire. Making solid contact with the mote, I revelled as it flew upwards and dissipated with a flash against the ceiling.

D-did I just deflect a spell? It was like playing volleyball again—

My mind began to drift towards the unsettling memory and feeling it gave me. Giving my head a shake, I exhaled sharply.

No, focus. Where did the shot come from? If that’s Goram over there, then that means only one thing. This spell came from Drac’aertin, the frail crocmaw shaman.

Checking on Rionriv briefly, she appeared to still be stable, which meant I needed to defend her until she awoke from her state. Readying myself for another attack, I scanned the area and tried to focus on the sounds of the space.

There were plenty of growls, shrieks, and scuffling from Aesandoral’s direction, a distraction in this echoey cavern. Then I noticed the sound of running water from a nearby stream that came from the slip-and-slice we had slid down. A footfall splashed against the flow, but it wasn’t Aesandoral’s light, eleven steps, nor was it the patter of canine paws.

Reaching down, I gripped one of the looted spell-charged bottles that Rionriv had affixed to her chest. Ripping it free, it tore a bit of her shirt away, which revealed the cleavage of her busty chest.

Thuh-thump! Thuh-thump! Thuh-thump!

My heart raced and my mind wandered before—

Hnngg—Focus. Life or death. Remember, life or death!

Just then, another globule of fire flew towards me. Dodging it narrowly, I could feel that I was running out of magic, meaning I had one or two more uses of deflection left. It was now or never time.

“Sorry, Ri,” I whispered and closed my eyes, gripping the bottle tightly. The shattered glass pierced into my flesh, and I could feel the warm blood dripping down my hand as I held the spell.

I had picked up a thing or two from the girls over the last few months. Stealthiness from Sharzin. Spellcraft from Rionriv. But right now, I was most thankful for Aesandoral’s preternatural hypervigilance. Following her style, I breathed and listened once more. I cut back on as many senses as possible, focusing only on my hearing.

Then it happened—the faintest slip of a rock, not from the other showdown. My eyes opened, and I saw an icy comet streaking through the air towards me.

Stepping to the side, I tossed the small flame into the air. With a jump, spiking it like a volleyball with my magic-infused hand, a fiery explosion erupted in the distant darkness as the frail master yelped in agony.

With that, a limp body flew into the light, sizzling and motionless. The frail crocmaw was unmoving. Drac’aertin was dead from a single, well-placed shot.

Landing on the ground, I stumbled forward. Suddenly I toppled to the stone floor as vomit flowed from my mouth.

No, it wasn’t vomit. I had spewed blood.

“Oh, that’s not good...” I muttered, pulling my hand up to my face.

Collapsing, I gripped half a foot of ice spear protruding from my gut. My vision began to narrow as I held onto the cold rod, feeling my life essence oozing out from the wound.

“Iz?” Rionriv began to stir.

“Good,” I muttered, falling to my back on the ground. “Zin. Algae.”

“Oh gods, Iz!”

Crawling her way over to me, Rionriv placed a hand on mine while the other fumbled around her bag.

“Just hold on; I’ll get a potion.”

“Ri. Listen. Algae. Kings. Clear. Tea. For. Zin. Algae. Kings. Cle—”

The curtains closed on my vision, and I fell unconscious.