I was just about to help my mate when Blaine dived out of the trees near the bandits, drawing my full attention. He was going to be outnumbered. I couldn’t leave him to take them on alone.
“Guard our stuff!” I called to Victor and Monica as I took off on Finn, holding my sword out, ready to cut these fae down. Blaine engaged in combat with the bow and arrow guy, which left me that weird hulking figure that had given me the creeps. As I got closer I could see he was still partially hidden behind a tree. What was he doing? He was just standing there like a weird peeping tom. Was he trying to scare me off? Or was he acting this way to draw me closer?
I was only a few yards from them when I heard Nix cry out from high above. Instinctively I knew something was wrong. I could feel it in my tight chest and throbbing head. Even though I had not been around her a lot, I sensed this wasn’t her normal call. Unfortunately, from the ground there was nothing I could do to help her. I reassured myself with the knowledge that she was as strong and powerful as Finn. She could handle herself; hopefully that was enough.
I was almost at the tree and the creepy cloaked fae still wasn’t moving. I kept my eyes locked on it, right up until a glint of metal caught my eye. Dropping my gaze, my heart froze and I shouted at Finn: “Stop!” My heels dug into his side as I hoped he would be able to stop in time. There was a round ring of glinting metal on the ground, hidden beneath some fallen leaves.
A trap!
Finn skidded to a stop, just managing to avoid the spikes, but before we could move again, another creature jumped out from behind the trees. Holy mother of all things crazy … creature had been putting it nicely. The fae was completely inhuman, round, with three legs and a multitude of arms sticking out in all directions. It had mounds of glistening gray skin and teeth … everywhere. Raising a bunch of its arms, he growled loudly, but didn’t move from behind the trap. I brought my sword down hard onto the metal teeth and a huge circular, bear-style trap popped up from its hidden leaf bed and snapped closed. I just managed to pull my sword out in time. Swallowing hard, I was flooded with relief. The sheer size and glinting sharpness of that device would have probably torn Finn in two.
That was close, my familiar said.
Yep, way too close. I was trying not to freak out about how close.
With a grunt the thing came for me, its gray skin crumpling as it moved. I was pretty sure I knew what it was now: an ogre. A seriously messed up one. Sucking in the chilled air, I tried to recall all the facts I’d learned about them. There was something the treeling had mentioned more than once, something they used in battle to give them an advantage, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what it was.
He was close now, and there was no more time to worry, only time to start slicing off pieces of gray grossness. It paused just before me and tipped his head back, and right then I remembered exactly what ogres could do. Acid fog. He roared, producing a green-tinged smoke from his mouth. Finn backed up as the smoke filled the area, but we weren’t fast enough. Finn coughed first; a millisecond later the smoke hit me. Holding my breath didn’t help, it seeped into my nose and eyes, burning like I had been pepper sprayed. My eyes and throat were scorched, and breathing got difficult, forcing me into a hacking cough, which loosened my hold on my weapon.
The ogre lunged for us both, taking Finn into a headlock and reaching for me with its other hands.
“Disperseio!” Nikoli called from behind me, and with a swirl of mecca the green mist was gone and I could breathe again. My eyes and throat still burned, but the shifter healing speed was already taking care of that.
Sucking in two huge gulps of air, I regained my grip on my weapon and sliced the blade up and across the ogre’s neck – or in the vicinity of my best guess of where a neck would probably be. Luckily this was an elven made sword; I’d been told it could slice through almost anything, which was proven correct when it met with no resistance in the rocky skin. Black blood spurted out of the beast and he roared again, dropping his hold on Finn.
The ogre opened his mouth and I knew it was going to let loose with the acid fog, but before any mist emerged I swung at him and sliced through his open mouth. Using all my strength I forced my sword out the other side, completely removing the top of his head. The blackness of his oily blood spouted everywhere, and he hit the ground with a resounding thud.
Jumping off Finn, I quickly took stock of the battle. Creepy cloaked guy was gone; I could no longer sense his darkness. It looked like he had run. That would be a piece of luck we normally didn’t get. Kade looked to be doing okay; he had the upper hand with the giant troll, pinning him against the tree and tearing into his body. Blaine, who had been joined by Monica at some point, had finished off the bow and arrow guy and they were now making their way over to me.
“You okay, Ari?” Blaine reached out and gripped my shoulders, his eyes scanning my body.
I leaned in closer and gave him a quick hug. “I’m perfectly fine, but we need to help Kade finish that giant. We’ve already spent too much time here.”
My dominants nodded, then all of us hurried toward the battling giants. About halfway across the clearing, the sound of flapping wings closed in on us.
Nix! I had forgotten her weird cry before. I frantically searched the sky to make sure she was okay. Only it wasn’t Nix flapping in my direction. Nope, it was some weird looking fae, almost like a fairy, but of the very dark variety. She swooped down holding her clawed hands out in front, giant black wings flapping behind her. The wings looked almost leathery, with a few shiny black feathers speckled across them. As she closed in I swung wildly with my sword, clipping her wing. With a high-pitched screech she rose up again, and seemed to be considering us as she hovered above.
Winged battle fae, Finn said to me. They are related to the ercho. She might even serve the same master.
Well, that was great news. Just fabulous.
Her pale skin was clawed up in places, and she had a few of Nix’s feathers in her hair, which was long and dark, flowing out behind her. Her face was not quite human – the spacing between her features was too wide, eyes too small, nose hooked in an odd witch-like shape. She let out a blood-curdling screech; it was enough to have my eardrums aching and a headache forming.