Chapter 344: Months in the Making

Alex’s thoughts raced.

The clawed monster had spoken to him. It had said something about a master? Who was this master, and how had he wronged them? How did he become its enemy when he didn’t even know who they were?

The monster roared, then fixed him with an odd gaze. Its lips parted. A word was forming.

Alex focused on the creature. What would it say?

He took in every detail: its body language, its voice, its eyes…

…its eyes.

It wasn’t looking at him.

It was looking behind him.

Alex whirled and dove.

“What’re you—oh nooooo! It’s coming out of the dust!” Gwyllain kicked wildly. “We’re dead! We’ll be killed.”

The young wizard swore, and shot away.

The agitated beast wouldn’t stop squirming, the trio swayed unsteadily, but Alex’s grip tightened on its wrists. No matter how much it thrashed, he wasn’t about to let it go.

Behind them, the Hive-queen swung along on sticky weblines. Dust parted before her. Her blades cut the air while she sprayed twin lines of webbing at Alex’s back. Forceballs swirled into her path, knocking the webs off target, but her blades kept coming.

Wrestling with the monster, Alex tried to soar past a beam holding a shelf of flour sacks.

Crack!

He grunted, pain shooting through his leg as his thigh bounced off the wood; force armour had taken most of the impact.

The Hive-queen’s immense bulk swung overhead, jaws parting in a silent roar.

Her blades slashed, splitting the old wooden beam, slicing through half a dozen flour sacks.

Crash!

Flour swirled like a snowstorm.

As the young wizard soared away, grappling with his would-be assassin, he called his elemental beetles: “That’s enough! There’s enough flour in the air! Attack the giant spider! Go for her eyes!”

The Queen’s multiple legs pulled her smoothly along the webbing, but with a silent cry she reared back suddenly. Through the white-out, elemental beetles swarmed her.

She clawed at her face, ripping at the beetles, trying to tear them off—buying Alex precious seconds.

“Leeeeeaaaadeeer,” the Hive-queen hissed. “Are yooouuuu aliiiiiive? I cannot see!”

The monster roared at her in its monstrous tongue, desperately slashing at Alex’s gut. Wizard’s Hands closed around its ankles, and forceballs pushed its legs apart, making it struggle all the harder.

Alex swore.

This wasn’t working.

He looked at the ceiling. There were some holes in it.

‘We have to get out of here.’

He’d have to put this monster to sleep and question it when they got away from the windmill. He needed answers. Focusing on his plan, Alex sailed through the air, climbing toward the ceiling, hauling the screaming, kicking monster with him.

“I….I think I’m going to be sick…or dead…” Gwyllain groaned.

“Hold on for a little longer…We’re getting out of here.” Alex said, then switched to the tongue of air elementals. “Listen to me!” His voice boomed through the mill. “Go to the top of the mill! Stay up there, get in front of the window! I’ll need all of you to blow inside as hard as you can!”

Wooden beams rushed past as Alex ascended.

The monster growled, snapping and biting at him.

The forceshield spun around its face.

‘Claygon!’ he thought. ‘Now! I need you to start charging your fire-gems. I’ll need them soon!’

Something came back through their connection: not a thought, but an acknowledgement.

‘Thank you.’ The wizard raced above the last of the birds, aiming for a hole in the ceiling.

That must lead to another floor.

He readied the forceballs. No doubt two very angry blue annis hags would be waiting.

“Where did he go?” The younger hag looked through the eyes of birds spread throughout the mill.

There was no sign of the wretch.

The last she’d seen of him, he’d been flying toward the top of the mill.

“Our birds outside do not see him either!” Her elder sister’s head turned as she looked through dozens of pairs of eyes.

The younger growled, pulling her senses back into her body. “I’ll look for myself.”

She started for the hole in the floor...

Crash!

Stumbling as something burst from it.

Alex swore from pain.

The clawed monster roared in pain as well.

Its struggling had slammed their shoulders against the floorboards as they flew through hole.

Wood exploded and splinters rained down.

But Alex had more to worry about than a throbbing shoulder.

This floor was mostly abandoned: only a few beast-goblins and two very large, very angry blue annis hags glared at him as he, the struggling monster and the screaming Gwyllain, hovered above the hole.

“You!” shrieked the closer one.

“What?” Gwyllain cried in a single breath. “That’sherthat’sherthat’sherthat’sherthat’sher! Don’t eat me! Don’t eat me!”

“I’ll eat you!” the hag growled.

“No!”

“I’ll have your flesh this time. There’s no escaping, fae!” She snarled, then turned her eyes to Alex. “And I’ll have yours too!”

Roaring like the monster he was gripping, she lunged, her iron claws shining in the moonlight.

Alex had no more patience for this. He had a plan. They were messing it up.

His forceballs shot at her feet, tangling her legs. The hag hit the floor jaw first, sprawling like an old rug. A tooth shot from her mouth.

“Raaaaargh! Filthy manling!” She spat blood on the floor. “I’ll get you! I’ll get you, manling!”

“You’re about to have much bigger problems,” the wizard said, his voice like ice.

Gripping the monster’s wrists, he shot through the open window.

The hag in feathers screeched, raising her hands. Alex felt the mana of lightning magic gathering. Still bleeding from her mouth, the one in amphibian skins charged to the window.

Both leaned out, lightning dancing around their claws.

Air elementals were flying to the window.

Whoooooom!

Claygon’s fire-gems flared below: they were nearly finished charging. The golem had crushed two crich-tulaghs and was finishing off the last. His gems glowed bright.

The clawed monster flailed in Alex’s grasp, desperately kicking and biting at him.

“Die! Die!” it roared in Alex's own voice. “Your hunt must end! No more can you be allowed to walk these lands! You and your kind must die!”

What? His kind?

Crackle!

Lightning flared in the hags’ claws.

Boom!

Twin bolts arced toward Alex.

He tried to dive away, but the monster’s movements grew more frantic, throwing off his flight.

Lightning raced for them.

They tumbled through the air.

Alex’s blood went cold.

He wouldn’t be able to dodge both bolts.

Not with this creature grappling with him.

Gwyllain was weeping at his side.

Think! Adapt!

His forceballs wouldn’t block the bolts.

Think! Adapt!

Forceshield couldn’t deflect them.

Think! Adapt!

He couldn’t get a potion out in time. He couldn’t cast a spell in time, either. For a single desperate, mad instant, he considered letting the lightning strike them. His body was tough now. He might survive.

…no. That was madness.

It would kill Gwyllain and probably the monster too.

And there’s no way he’d survive the fall, even if by some miracle he survived the lightning.

There was only one thing he could do.

Frustration boiled, leaving his mouth in a roar of rage.

Alex released the thrashing monster and dove.

Crackle!

Lightning struck the creature in mid-air, cutting off a shriek as its body writhed in flashes of blue light. Then, it was falling, trailing smoke. Alex shot after it at full speed.

Mana to life.

If it was still alive, he could catch it and use Mana to Life to keep it alive.

The final Hunter fell.

Its head swam.

Its body was past pain, and its limbs twitched.

“Must…kill…” The stunned Hunter choked. Its tongue had boiled in its mouth. “Mission…no…escape.”

It felt like something was carrying it from below…maybe it was the Hive-queen, climbing her weblines. No…she was still in the human structure. It could see birds and white dust through cracks in the stone as it plunged toward the building’s base.

Most of the Hunter’s forces were inside.

It tried calling to them.

‘The usurper is here!’ it thought. ‘He’s here!’

They just had to go a little farther.

A little farther and they would catch the Ravener’s enem—

No…no, it had lost.

There was nothing carrying it.

Only the cold ground awaited.

Heat touched its back as it neared the clay creature’s glow.

Would the usurper command the clay man to crush its body if it survived the fall? The Ravener’s servant looked up toward its enemy. The man flew after it at speed. He looked half-mad.

“Claaaaygooooon!” he was shouting. “Caaaatch iiiiiit!”

Catch it?

Ah…the usurper still wished to capture it.

Maybe…maybe that would be a good thing. If it lived, there would be one more chance to fulfil its mission. Weakly, it reached toward its enemy’s outstretched hand.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The big clay soldier was approaching from below.

Maybe it will catch it in time?

Maybe—

Whoooosh!

Was that the ground?

It could feel something nearing its back

It gasped, terror clutching its chest.

No! It had more to do! It could not die! Not ye—

Crunch!

There was a horrible instant.

An instant where it felt its body break.

Then there was nothing.

“No!” Alex screamed, pulling up from his dive. “No! No! No! No!

The assassin was splattered on the ground, like an insect caught beneath a boot.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

A heartbeat too late, Claygon stepped beside it, his arms still raised to catch it. The golem’s head fell a little.

Rage coursed through the wizard and he looked toward the window.

“You…filth!” he roared. “Look what you’ve done!”

The hags raised their hands.

Then his air elementals reached the window—formed a wall—and together, blew inside as hard as they could. The hags were thrown back.

Alex’s teeth clenched. For a moment, he considered flying back up there and capturing one…but…no. They had all of those creatures under their control. While he was trying to catch a single hag, they could swarm him, Gwyllain and Claygon, then escape through the woods and overrun everyone in the encampment.

And the hags were magic users…they’d be a lot harder to hold on to than that clawed monster.

Besides, poor Gwyllain was babbling with terror…he couldn’t justify taking the asrai anywhere near those two hags again.

—oooom!

As if supporting his decision, the fire-gems finished charging.

Alex took a deep breath.

The flour was whipped up inside the mill. The air was concentrated.

…and most of his enemies were in the killing zone.

“Claygon…obliterate them.”

The golem looked at him for a moment, then turned, aiming all three gems at the archway.

Their light burned in the night.

Whoooooooosh!

Three beams lanced from his palms and forehead, blasting into the windmill. There was a brief moment…a brief moment when the world seemed to be at utter peace.

Booom!

Then it all exploded.

The flour dust caught.

The air ignited.

And night turned to day.

“Sister, get up!” the elder of the hags cried. “Help me slay this creature! I’ll throw my mind into the birds and send them after him!”

The younger hag groaned, climbing up to her hands and knees. Another of her fangs felt loose in her mouth. A growl of rage escaped her throat.

That manling would pay for all of this!

Even if he won on this night and escaped, she and her sister knew of the humans’ treachery. They could leave this place and whisper what they knew to the other humans, they could—

Boom!

She gasped, choking on dust.

What was that?

Leaning forward, she peered through a hole in the floor.

Flame.

Flame was consuming everything.

Three beams of light had exploded, igniting the dust particles and air between. The air burned.

And all burned with it.

Venom walkers boiled.

Silence-spiders ruptured.

Beast-goblins lit up like torches.

The crich-tulagh writhed, its body steaming then coming alight.

The Ravener-spawn spider-queen screamed so loud, she hurt the hag’s ears. She was desperately trying to climb away, but her webs snapped from the heat. With her endless legs writhing, she fell into the inferno.

Flames rose like a starving beast, turning the hags’ birds to ash mid-flight. They were shrieking as they—

A blood-curdling scream came from behind her.

It was her sister.

She whirled.

Her sister was on the ground, writhing and weeping tears of blood. The birds. Her senses had been in them; she had felt each and every one of them burning all at once.

The agony would have driven anyone mad.

‘I have to get out of here!’ the younger sister panicked.

Flame roared, rising through the structure, consuming flour, rafters and monsters as one.

It raced toward her, the burning spectre of death.

Her lungs were blistering.

Her skin was hot.

Desperately, she tried to flee, abandoning her elder sister to her fate, but the air spirits were still blasting wind through the window. The hag dug her claws into the floorboards, fighting the gale…but she’d never fight her way through it in time.

Wait! What if she blasted them?

Calling upon her mana—and knowing nothing of dust explosions—she called the lightning. It sparked between her iron claws…

…sparked in a small stone chamber, being fed with a backdraft and full of flammable dust.

Boom!

A second explosion consumed her.

The blue annis hag—a creature that had stalked Greymoor for decades, eating people, fae and beasts alike—tried to shriek.

But her lungs were ash.

A lump hit the floor…a lump that was little more than meat clinging to burning bones.

Greymoor would be a safer place.