AA3 21 - Respect (Patreon)

“Thanr laif!” Verdan pointed his staff at one of the largest of the remaining creatures, unleashing a tight lance of flames that burnt a hole through its chest and hit the creature behind it.

A quick look around the area told Verdan that there were barely a handful of the disturbing creatures left, and those few died even as he watched.

“Bring the wounded to the centre. Padraig, take control here,” Ciaran called out as he bisected an antlered creature with claws. “Jarn, Verdan, with me, we must push on!”

Verdan turned to see what Dirk was doing, but his apprentice was already moving to the centre of the circle the Kranjir were forming. Barb was by his side, a bloody blade in hand, and gave Verdan a reassuring nod.

Satisfied that Dirk wasn’t doing something stupid or trying to follow them, Verdan cast a lingering light spell to keep the area illuminated before hurrying over to where Ciaran and Jarn were waiting with Hedda.

The Witch had a strained look on her face, and her caelin was starkly outlined against her pale features. Verdan had seen her crippling some of the monsters with her magic, though, so she was still able to fight.

“Kai went after it already,” Hedda said as Verdan reached them, wincing a little as a roar came from the direction the creature had gone. “I’m suppressing its magic, but it won’t last long.”

“Iacha nercreth.” Verdan reached out to rest a hand on her shoulder for a moment as he cast his healing spell. He didn’t have a premade spell for just bolstering someone, so this was the next best thing.

Hedda let out a slight sigh of relief and gave Verdan a grateful look before turning to Ciaran. “I think the creature is retreating from us. It’s already much further away than before.”

“We must go immediately then and find your friend,” Ciaran said before heading off toward where the creature had been at a run.

With Verdan’s light before them, they quickly caught sight of the wooden pen the creature had been heading for initially, from which faint sobbing could be heard.

“Abyss take it!” Hedda stumbled, falling down on one knee as she coughed up blood onto the rocky floor.

“Iacha!” Verdan was quick to infuse the Witch with healing magic as he looked around for what had injured her, a shield spell on his lips.

“The Gormagyr has banished my influence,” Hedda gasped out, looking up at Verdan with a worried expression. “It has its magic back, but the last I felt, it was still moving away from us.”

“Wizard, come quickly!” Ciaran’s voice was urgent as he shouted for Verdan.

Looking over, Verdan could see Ciaran and Jarn were both at the edge of the illumination from his spells. Ciaran was kneeling over a dark shape on the ground while Jarn stood watch with an angry expression.

Rushing to them, Verdan saw that the shape was Kai’s crumpled form and that his friend was lying in a slowly growing pool of blood.

“Grym iacha nercreth,” Verdan crammed as much Aether as he could into the spell, the words tearing at his throat as he put a hand on Kai’s shoulder.

The Sorcerer gasped, his eyes flying open as the magic swept through him. There was an audible grinding of bone as something in Kai’s leg shifted, making him grimace and let out a pained grunt.

“Will he live?” Ciaran asked, glancing between Verdan and Kai.

“Yes, though it will take time for him to recover.”

“Good.” Ciaran leaned down, catching Kai’s gaze with his own. “You are a fool for taking on such a vile monster alone, but you have my respect for it. Rest, we shall free the captives.”

“I almost expected you to demand that we chase it down,” Verdan said, keeping one hand on Kai as he prepared to heal him a second time.

“If I thought we could catch and kill it, perhaps I would,” Ciaran said, getting back to his feet before glancing off into the darkness. “The Gormagyr will kill many more because it escaped us this day. My father would have understood if we died to kill it, but if we died in vain, the loss to the Clans would be great.”

Verdan cast a second healing spell on Kai before helping him up to sit against a cleaner piece of rock. Satisfied that he was no longer in danger, Verdan turned back to face the Chosen. “Let us see to that pen.”

“Agreed,” Ciaran said, pausing for a moment before looking over to the other Chosen. “Stay here and keep watch. Call for me if you see any sign of the Gormagyr.”

A bird’s cry rang through the cavern as a sparrowhawk wearily flew out of the darkness to land on Hedda’s shoulder. It looked to be her usual familiar, though it seemed weaker than usual to Verdan’s senses.

“It is long gone,” Hedda said, looking over at the sparrowhawk tenderly as she wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. “Kai wounded it badly, and Sgian was with it for a good part of its flight.”

“How wounded?” Jarn asked, looking over to Hedda with an intense expression.

“A deep stab on its foot, a few minor wounds and burns around its body and a ruined eye.”

Jarn gave Kai a surprised look before giving him a respectful nod and turning back to his watch. “Go, I will make sure nothing bothers him.”

Verdan watched the byplay with interest but kept out of it, instead following Ciaran and Hedda over to the wooden pen they’d seen.

The sobs they’d heard intensified as Verdan conjured several more globes of light to illuminate the area.

“My name is Ciaran Macstan, Chosen of the Clans. Move away from the wall closest to me, or tell me if there is anyone close to it who can not move.” Ciaran called out as they approached the wall of the pen.

“We’ve moved, please, help us!” A tremulous voice called back as the sobs quietened down.

Ciaran hefted his axe, and Verdan watched with interest as Aether flowed from him into his blade. Whatever Ciaran was doing, it was deliberate, not just some passive effect.

Ciaran brought his axe down with a grunt, aiming at the split between two of the logs. The axe’s blade carved through the rope present and gave off a storm of woodchips as the axe carved deep into the closer log.

Watching carefully with his Aether senses, Verdan could see that Ciaran was deliberately enhancing his weapon on specific swings. When he did, the raw impact of the weapon was boosted considerably.

“Durst,” Verdan muttered, casting two breaching spells at the base of the area that Ciaran was hacking open.

“My thanks,” Ciaran muttered as the opening he’d been making grew large enough to pass through. “The path is clear. Come through!”

A ragged group of captives hurried forward and squeezed through the gap, many of them crying in relief as they escaped the pen.

There were a dozen total, and none of them were much beyond their teenage years. The man that Verdan had caught with his magic might have been the oldest here, and Verdan put him in his late twenties.

“Did you find anyone else?” A young woman approached Ciaran with a hopeful expression that quickly fell away as he shook his head.

“This isn’t the place to discuss anything,” Ciaran said, holding up a hand to forestall any other questions. “Please, come with me. Let’s get you all out of here. Verdan, please let Jarn know we’re leaving.”

Verdan nodded, looking over the people they’d rescued for any obvious injuries before heading back to where Kai was resting.

True to his word, Jarn was waiting patiently when Verdan reached them, his hammer ready for anything that might come.

“We have the captives. It’s time to go,” Verdan told the Chosen as he helped Kai to his feet before going to fetch his spear.

“Let me.” Jarn moved to help support Kai, helping him walk while keeping his hammer at the ready.

Verdan schooled his expression to hide any surprise at Jarn’s actions and instead turned his focus inward for a moment as he threw together a variant detection spell.

“Canfo.” Verdan released the spell, wincing a little at how much Aether it used. He’d thrown a lot of spells around in the last hour, and the Aetherburn from all of them was starting to build up.

Thankfully, his tolerance to the feedback from casting spells was building much faster than the first time, likely because he’d done it before.

The detection didn’t return anything unusual, so Verdan focused on hurrying back to the rest of the group.

Battling monsters when they were all fighters was one thing, but now they had people to protect. His focus was on getting them out.

Ciaran seemed to be of the same mind as he was already organising the rest of the Kranjir when they caught up with them.

Padraig and some of the older Kranjir looked surprised to see Jarn helping Kai along, a few of them having whispered conversations with glances at Verdan and Hedda.

Ignoring it all as best he could, Verdan cast his detection spell twice more as they retraced their path. Each one returned nothing unexpected. It seemed that they had driven out this Gormagyr and killed all of its minions at the same time.

Verdan hadn’t gotten a great look at the thing, but he’d felt the energy it used, so the more they could do to weaken it, the better.

“Alright, let’s take a few minutes here before we head back. I want all injuries bound and cared for before we move on.”

“Yes, Chosen,” the Kranjir called back in a smooth chorus as they helped the rescued villagers find places to rest.

That, more than anything, was what impressed Verdan about these fighters. They were well-trained, that much was clear after seeing them in action, but they had all made the villagers their priority as soon as they’d found them.

Verdan saw one of the older Kranjir take a few moments to calm down a panicked-looking teenage boy and share some jerky with him, all while ignoring what looked like a claw wound that had gotten through to his hip.

Paying closer attention to the Kranjir, Verdan could see that almost a full third of them were injured after the fighting. None of the injuries were bad enough to have slowed them down, but they’d all picked up minor wounds at some point.

Moving over to the closest of the wounded he could see, Verdan cast a minor healing spell before moving on to the next person.

Verdan had gotten plenty of practice with his healing since he’d woken up in this new world, so making sure everyone was in good shape wasn’t too draining, which was a relief.

The sun was almost below the horizon after their time below ground, and the last thing that Verdan wanted was to run low on Aether before their trip back.