A New Pain

The monster pounced at me, its muscles rippling from front to back. Time seemed to slow down, my mind was scrambling for what to do. I knew that I didn’t have enough time to finish my rot spell, and even if I did, the momentum was already sprung, even dead the monster hitting me was sure to cause serious damage. I remembered the dagger that Tiaria had just given me, I had attached it to my robe behind me. As fast as lighting I threw my arm behind me and pulled the dagger, in that split moment the beast had become only a few feet from impacting me. My hope was that by having both my hands free for a melee I would be able to redirect the monster’s momentum so that I did not suffer the full force of the attack.

Right as I was bracing for the imminent impact of the monster, from the corner of my eye, a flash. Suddenly, in front of me was the small back of a beautiful young girl, Tiaria. The moment I saw her appear in front of me, sword drawn, I heard the impact of the beast into her small frame. I could hear a deep metal sound as part of the beast struck her sword, and a fleshly ripping and tearing sound as the rest of the monster slammed into her body. Tiaria was pushed back into me and we both were slammed to the ground. Tiaria let out a yelp as she landed on top of me. I could feel the drip of blood from Tiaria onto me as I held her up in my arms. The monster let out a howl. I could see the glint of metal reflected behind the monster, Tiaria had managed to run it though with her sword while being attacked.

Tiaria seemingly passed out, releasing her hold on her sword. The monster took the opportunity to back off, chewing at the sword, trying to free it from its body. I looked at Tiaria as I held her. She felt so small and frail, yet was so strong and noble. I felt an unmanageable sorrow well up within me. I gently rolled Tiaria onto her side on the ground and stood up. I had an idea. I imagined my magical energy flowing into my dagger, and then placed the same feeling into it that I had felt when Tiaria had first cast Demon’s Bane on me, except I tweaked that feeling so that it would resonate with the monster in front of me, instead of a demon. 

Suddenly a dark blue light shone out from my dagger, and a deep bassy hum echoed throughout the forest. I squinted, zeroing in the entirety of my focus on the wounded monster in front of me. I would put everything I had into this charge. I ran as fast as I could at the monster, my glowing dagger held out beside me. I yelled as I struck the monster, stabbing deep into its side. The monster froze, looking at me with its four eyes, giving off an indecipherable emotion. Around my dagger the monster’s skin began to smoke before massive boils bubbled up all over its body. The monster let out one last howl before exploding into a rain of gore. I stood, breathing hard, over the remains of the monster that had just a moment ago been an insurmountable threat to me.

After I had a moment to gather my thoughts I walked over to where Tiaria was laying. I sat down next to her. Lighting flashed overhead, I caught a silhouette of a large cloud moving towards us out of the corner of my eye. I pulled Tiaria up and held her against me, placing her head against my chest, and holding her steady in my lap. Blood dribbled onto me from her deep, wounded, stomach. I could hear her strained breathing, she was struggling for every breath. I closed my eyes, I remembered how Tiaria had reached out to me, touching me with her magic, this time I did the same in reverse, reaching out to her. I could feel her magic, slowly weakening, fading away. I then remembered the feeling of the healing spell which I had been casting on myself unconsciously. I pushed my magic into Tiaria, and enveloped her in the warmth which I could remember. I kept pushing my magic into her, holding her tighter. I could see Tiaria’s inner magic slowly glowing brighter, consuming the magic which I poured into her. I could feel Tiaria’s breathing stabilize as her chest heaving against mine began to regulate.

“Jeeze, this is an embarrassing position.” Tiaria struggled to get the words out of her mouth.

“Sorry.” I said. “This is the best position for me to infuse my magic into yours.”

Tiaria placed her arms around my back and held onto my robe.

“That’s okay.” Tiaria began, “This is nice and warm.”

Tiaria still hadn’t opened her eyes. Lightning was flashing around us and a light sprinkling of rain started coming down. I could see that she was still extremely pale. I kept infusing more magic into her.

“Do you know why monster’s have trace amounts of magic inside of them?” Tiaria lightly mumbled, I could barely hear her over the pattering of raindrops.

“No, why is that?” I asked with a quiet tone.

“It’s their soul.” Tiaria gave a pained laugh.

“Isn’t it strange, that monster’s have souls?” Tiaria asked quietly.

“Is it?” I returned

“I think so.” Tiaria said more quietly. I could tell she was tiring out.

I looked around, to be honest, I was completely lost. I had no idea how to get back to the town without Tiaria guiding me. I decided that the best thing I could do for now was find shelter and keep healing Tiaria until she was to the point that she could guide me through the forest. I carefully placed my arms around Tiaria’s back and legs and pulled her up close to me before standing up. There was only one thing I could do in this circumstance, I simply started walking forward. Lightning continued to flash around me, I had pulled my robe up and draped the folded clothe over Tiaria to help keep her dry. I had been walking for a few minutes when, out of the corner of my eye, and in the split second that a flash of lightning lit up the surroundings, I noticed a massive tree with a large cavern in the middle of it. I walked over towards it and inspected the cavern. The tree was gargantuan, easily several times my length around. The cavern had burnt black edges all around it, I assumed it was created by a lightning strike at some point in the past. I moved inside of it and sat down, carefully placing Tiaria back into my lap. Tiaria was continuously coming in and out of consciousness, giving a rough breath and cough when she did.

“I don’t know if you can hear me right now.” I started. “I guess since we have some down time we can talk a bit.”

“Thank you for everything you have done for me.” I said. “Without you I’d be dead in this forest, so let me repay the favor. No matter what, I won't leave you here.”

“Promise?” I hadn’t realized that Tiara was conscious. Her voice was strained and she was still unable to fully open her eyes.

“Promise.” I answered.

Tiaria replied by gripping my robe. She slipped out of consciousness again. I could see that her magical energy was slowly becoming more robust, but a great amount of it was still leaking out, likely because I was unable to fully close the wound on her stomach; she was still bleeding heavily. I had tried to put pressure on the wound, but it was too wide and deep to be useful.

“Aren’t you supposed to be a god soon? What kind of god gets done in by a giant sloth?” I teased.

It wasn’t as fun to tease her when she was unconscious.

“Please wake up soon.” I whispered.