Rise of a Monster

"Technically, they aren't breaking any rules." Erasiel mused.

"Aren't breaking any– what in the cumulus, Erasiel do you hear yourself? They're sporting half a dozen lethal curses without so much as a bellyache between them!" Markiel protested, pointing a chip at Penciel as if this whole situation was his doing.

"They paid the costs." Penciel said, knowing full well that wasn't the issue at hand. "Each curse has taken its due title slot, and neither Sean nor Gel have tried to get around that by any means."

"Try or not, they're still getting around the entire intent of curses." Markiel countered, jabbing at him once again with her chip to punctuate her points. "There's not a single negative effect in that menagerie they're prancing about with that actually bothers them. Not. A. One."

"Fascinating isn't it?"

"Papryiel's wings would explode if he was watching this." Markiel muttered around a mouthful of chip. "You know how hard his division works. First the goblins with that ridiculous song-curse of theirs and now you're letting these two run amuck? If he puts in for retirement because of this, Shepiel will have your head."

"And yet, Papryiel was not the one he called here." Erasiel turned to regard his friend as Sean, Gel, and Saren prepared to engage Gold Spire's Knight-Captains on the scroll behind him. "Not that I mind the party dish invite, but you said we might have to intervene. Clearly you did not mean the 'menagerie' they are 'sporting'--"

Erasiel put air quotes around both words while Markiel smirked, clearly proud of her description. "-- else you would have interceded sooner. You did not. That must mean there is a greater concern."

Penciel acceded the point with a nod before gesturing back at their viewing scroll. "There is. Take a look at his arm."

"The blackened one?" Erasiel turned to inspect it, the angel having no issue tracking its movement despite the ongoing battle. "I assumed it was some form of rot or a variant racial trait. Judging by your expression, it is not a stylistic choice."

Penciel shook his head. "It's the 'Reaper's Hand' ability. He chose it not terribly long after he arrived."

There was a moment of silence as the pair of angels digested that statement. Markiel was the first to speak, her frustration at the rising likelihood of her losing their bet swiftly forgotten as one side of the battlefield shown on the scroll began to radiate intense Light mana.

The Brightmaiden had finally made her appearance.

"Is that a–"

"Yep."

Erasiel swore under his breath, sighed with the air of one who has just decided to give up on their diet, and then began piling food onto a cracker.

"Well, now things are getting even more interesting. Up to doubling our wager?" Markiel asked, her eyes shining bright. "I'll even do you a solid and call it square if you have to intervene before they blow half the city apart."

"Honestly? I'd be happy with that outcome." Penciel said, his voice going serious once again. "Because if I'm right, Sean and Gel aren't the only ones playing fast and loose with the Rules here."

—--------------------

Saren surveyed the battlefield, his surging feelings as raw as they were mixed. He buffeted the two knight-captains he had once trained under with harsh gusts of wind, keeping Gel's opponents off balance. Acting as the tipping point the oracle had told him to be. Giving a monster the opportunity to finish off his one-time friends. Even as his own heart cracked.

"You follow a false light, brothers!" Saren called to them, his voice strengthened by the wind itself. "Stand aside as the others have, that I may show you the way!"

"Traitor!" Baran growled, parrying a heavy blow from the armored undead that came within a feather's length of severing his already wounded arm at the shoulder. Blood splashed over brick as the man was forced back by Gel's follow up, and he could spare no more time for words.

"Cowards!" Tranek shouted, his outrage even more evident than Baran's as the knight-captain turned his own blood-slick sword to jab at not Gel or the owlen, but at Gold Spire's lower ranks who knelt behind him. "You dare bend the knee to one who has abandoned our cause, thrown in with the unliving, and attacked our home in the dead of night like a snake!? Rise! Rise and fight him with us!"

Saren shook his head with regret, his feathered arms feeling as lead as he called the wind to hasten Gel's movements once more. To do as the oracle had commanded. To end the lives of those who would not repent from their path.

"I am sorry, my brothers. But if you will not lay down your weapons, then you give me no choice. Our Spire cannot abide the sickness within it any longer."

"Sickness?" Tranek spat a tooth Gel's fist had knocked loose out with a wild, bloody grin. "Foolish bird. You and your precious oracle are the sickness, why do you think he is not here himself? Busy spreading more monsters like this one across the sands, is he?"

"The only monsters here are the ones in your hearts." Saren firmed his resolve, preparing to knock aside Baran's next blow and give Gel the opportunity to end this. I will pray for you both, I swea–

"Isla!!" Baran shouted suddenly. "Stop hiding and serve us against this evil!"

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

A woman wreathed in a robe of bright light shimmered into visibility a short distance behind Baran, as calmly and cleanly as if she had stepped out of a mirage.

"No…" Saren whispered, his eyes confirming what his heart had refused to believe. He had been too late. "Isla, no. What have you done…"

The brightmaiden raised one hand and the sound of a struck bell echoed across the battlefield. Thin golden beams shot from her fingers, searing the wounds of both knight-captains shut as Gel leapt backwards in a guarded stance. His opponents did not follow, instead choosing to roll their shoulders and necks as renewed strength flowed into their limbs.

"You should have fled with the oracle." Baran growled, excess power spilling out as wisps of glowing light around the edges of eyes as he leveled his blade at Saren. "Now, you will die here, traitor."

—--------------------

"Are we being ignored?" Sean asked Gel, watching with incredulity as their two opponents turned away from them to face Saren in unison.

"I… I think we are." Gel said, in a tone of shock. "Those two really seem to hate Feathers."

"Any idea what the third one can do? Usually I'd say healer first, but Saren isn't going to last against both of them."

There was also the fact that Sean's instincts screamed at him in warning, fury, and desire every time he looked at her. Despite her whole body radiating with revolting energy, in his pulse sense the brightmaiden may as well have been dead.

She has no heart. Not even a single vein. Sean realized, wondering how the woman was alive– if she even was. How does that even work?

"Feathers said she's not a threat by herself. She's more like a font of mana the others can draw on. A big one. Tradeoff is she can't fight. But that doesn't mean much when she can heal and enhance their abilities to 'new heights', whatever that means."

"Can we kill her?"

"Of course we can kill her!" Gel sounded confused at the question, like he thought Sean had lost his nerve and needed motivation. "The real question is can we eat her? I'm betting they want the answer to be no, but it is almost certainly yes."

The pair Saren had called knight-captains charged at the owlen, and Sean seized on the mistake. Only fools left their backline undefended, and Saren could fly to escape them if he needed to. He charged in, his crimson axe held high in both hands.

Before he had crossed half the distance, one of the knight-captains shouted in alarm. A thin golden bubble surrounded the brightmaiden, but Sean had seen this ability before. It hadn't stopped him before, and it wouldn't now. Imbuing the strike with Slash and some of the momentum he had built up over the course of the fight, he brought the axe down.

You have struck Retributive Light Barrier for 38 damage (base 13, increased by 15 due to slash and a further 10 due to momentum).

Sean barely had time to register that the barrier had gained a new descriptor, "retributive", before a much more concerning prompt appeared.

Oh, shit.

Retributive Light Barrier has reflected 38 damage back at your weapon.

Sean's crimson axe, beloved companion of many battles, shattered like glass in his hand. He stared at the empty hand for a moment. Then he turned to face the pair who, sensing their own opportunity, had abandoned their charge on Saren in favor of attacking him. By the triumphant looks on their faces, they clearly believed victory was in their grasp. One of them said something, and Gel immediately translated it, sounding offended.

"'Not so tough without our weapon'? Does he– do they think we came here with only one?"

Out loud, Gel began to cackle. Sean's jaw clattered with his own soundless laughter, and the two paladins frowned even as they closed the distance. The geladin extended both arms out as if in an embrace… as Gel summoned a gleaming crimson axe in either hand. Standing his ground, the geladin met their charge with a heavy double swing, forcing both to dodge to either side.

Sean picked the one to his right and whirled in place, slashing rapidly out over and over again. The knight-captain swore as he stumbled back, barely managing to keep up– but only with Sean. Gel's crimson whip attacks scored his face and arms, melting flesh deeply enough to reveal brief glimpses of bone underneath. To their dismay however, over and over searing light restored the damage almost immediately.

There has to be a limit to this. Sean thought as their one-sided beatdown continued to savage the man. If we can waste all of her mana on healing him… he's toast once she runs out.

"Mmph, oh yes – delicious! Delicious again!" Gel exclaimed happily as they fought on. "I hope her mana never runs out! He's like the never-ending meal!"

Their fight continued for several minutes, neither able to gain a clear advantage despite the heavy damage the geladin continued to inflict on his opponent. When Sean managed to hack off an arm, he thought that might be it – but the Brightmaiden merely flared her hateful light and a new limb appeared before the knight-captain had even finished gritting his teeth in pain. A glowing shield also popped into existence, replacing the one he had lost.

"As much as I would love to keep eating this guy." Gel mumbled as he consumed the man's fallen limb. "It's like watching my plate get pulled away from me every time I take a bite. I want my plate, Sean."

"Working on it."

Dual-wielding had been fun, but with the shock value spent it was time to go back to his specialty. Sean tossed one of the weapons up towards the paladin's head in a high spinning arc. As his opponent's sword moved high to batter it away, the geladin gripped his remaining axe in both hands and brought it in for a powerful upswing. The knight-captain had no time to react.

Sean's axe punctured the man's armor and buried itself in his midsection, severing his spine in the process. Gel's crimson whip lashed out, melting the man's surprised expression – and the rest of his skull's flesh – from his face. With a heavy kick to the back of the axe's blade, the geladin knocked the man to the ground even as he shoved the weapon still further into his body.

Try healing that. Sean thought as his blazing orbs met the Brightmaiden's dispassionate golden eyes. He had intended to intimidate her, but she didn't so much as blink at him behind her shimmering barrier. Staring at her now, he wasn't entirely sure she even could. Ah well. One down, two to go.

When his opponent didn't flare with any more of her healing light, Sean simply nodded at her and moved to pick up his discarded axe. As he did, he caught his first glimpse of how Saren's own fight was going. The former paladin had been forced back towards where the surrendered lower ranks were kneeling, but aside from missing most of the feathers on his wings he was relatively uninjured.

"Feathers isn't doing bad." Sean remarked, impressed. "What say we go join him?"

"Fine, but after we're done I'm coming back to finish this one off." Gel said, indicating their fallen opponent with his whip first, before pointing at the Brightmaiden. "And that one."

"Works for me. She can't enhance the barrier if they are dead."

Sean charged in to join their ally, but as they drew close his pulse sense picked up a change in the kneeling crowd. A shift of emotions that he had been too distant to detect before. Most were still afraid. Some were angry. But a few were… hopeful? Like they were waiting for something–

"Tell Saren to get out of there!" Sean urged Gel. "Have him fly or move to us, or–"

Before Gel could speak, three of the kneeling paladins dashed up behind Saren and struck at him with their weapons just as the knight-captain pressed in with a furious blow wrapped in a bright, angry light. The owlen heard them coming, but there was little he could do against four attacks at once. Saren barely managed to turn aside the knight-captain's blow, his sword snapping in half in the process. One of the attackers to his rear slipped, momentarily frozen in place as his eyes met those of the ones Gel was holding aloft. Sean's old pair, now glowing with their own mesmerizing purple light.

Stuffed Bear (Cursed): Allows its owner to make a stunning glare that can temporarily freeze opponents in their tracks whenever the bear is hugged. With each use, the bear hugs tighter, consuming more of the air from its owner's every breath until none is left.

A spear and a sword shoved their way through Saren's chest, their owners unaffected by Gel's glare. The one-time paladin coughed in surprise, blood swelling up from his beak as Saren fell to his knees. The pair left their weapons in, drawing daggers from their belts.

"No, hey– stop that!" Gel shouted. "You can't have him, that's my bird!"

Sean hurled his crimson axe at the pair, forcing them away to dodge away from the fallen owlen. Then he drew his midnight blade for the first time, a cold, brutal rage filling him as he slashed at the knight-captain, forcing the man to turn his finishing blow into a parry to save his own neck.

"You are going to regret that." Sean thought, Gel translating the words for him in real time as their mutual fury swelled. The slime's voice bellowing out with such power and menace that the remaining kneeling paladins scrambled to their feet and fled.

"All of you."