Chapter Text
You can handle this.
Erin could feel his heart pounding in his ears; he felt a sting in the dragon’s mark that adorned his chest, but he had to ignore it; the monster that had just torn into the clearing was terrifying. He couldn’t tell what animal the chimera had been before its transformation. Tufts of matted brown fur were interspersed between patches of the creature’s dry, scaly skin. Its face was a mess of fangs, its bloodshot eyes glassy and hungry and lips too stretched out for the size of its jaw. The monster’s legs were mismatched; three were long, thin, and muscular, with bloodstained spikes of bone pointing out of the elbows. The last appendage was swollen four times the width of the others, pulsing red.
He could hear Alinua cry out, a primal, guttural scream that sounded like it was going to rip her throat apart. A bright green glow came from Erin’s right, where she was standing. Vines erupted from the ground around her, growing longer by the second.
He bit down the urge to tell her to use a runic circle. Now wasn’t the time. From his left, he heard the shnk! of a sword being yanked out of its sheath, and Kendal stepped into view. His tall and intimidating frame looked miniscule in comparison to the creature in front of them, but Erin still found some comfort in knowing he was there to help; Kendal was good in a fight. The only member of the group didn’t see was Falst, but he had a habit of going quiet whenever they were near something dangerous, so he was probably somewhere behind Erin.
The chimera’s long, jagged claws dragged across the ground as it bounded toward the group. Instinctively, Erin unbuttoned his flowing sleeves in one fluid motion, revealing the tattoos that adorned his forearms. His hand brushed the earth rune; with a rumble, the ground in front of the chimera erupted into an assortment of spikes sharpened from the bedrock underneath. The creature stopped moving right before it hit the first spike. Erin cursed under his breath and tried it right under the creature’s feet. No dice. It just leaped away. He couldn’t keep doing that for long; earth magic worked best when he could take time to add momentum to the movement, and that wasn’t going to happen in a fight.
He was about to try something else, maybe paralyze the creature, when he saw three things happen at once. Kendal leaped forward, thrusting his silver sword into the creature’s furry throat; Alinua’s vines wrapped around the chimera’s legs, trapping it where it was; and lastly, Falst dropped from a tree on top of the monster’s face, gouging its right eye with his claws. The chimera let loose a wild roar that echoed through the clearing and threw Falst off of its head. He flew through the air, and Erin only had a half-second to process where he was going to land before Falst slammed into him and they went flying.
The two were sprawled on the ground in a dense patch of forest on the hill near the clearing they had been in a second ago, gasping for breath before they even knew what was going on. Falst peeled himself off of Erin’s chest and flopped on the grass next to him, retching. He let out a long, pained groan. Erin touched one of his tattoos and it began to glow a bright green. With some concentration a faint runic circle appeared around his left hand; he touched it to his throbbing chest and some of the pain began to alleviate. He sighed in relief before pulling himself to his feet and stumbling a few steps towards where Falst was trying and failing to walk back into the clearing, from which came an assortment of roars and grunts and other various noises related to fighting.
A regular human like Erin would have been knocked unconscious from the fall Falst had just taken, but Falst seemed to be fully aware of his surroundings, if a bit winded. He had various scrapes and cuts, but most of his trouble walking came from a nasty gash that ran from his knee down to his ankle on his right leg, maybe from scraping against one of the rocks sticking out of the ground? Erin approached him, his steps growing steadier as he walked more.
“Are you okay? I can heal-”
“I’m fine,” Falst snapped, his face twisted into a snarl. “And I don’t need your help. I’m just worried about how long it’s taking those two to finish up this fight. They’re usually faster than this.”
“Okay, I admit that they do probably need our assistance,” Erin said, the runic circle in his hand dissipating as he flinched from a loud scraping sound from the clearing, like nails on a chalkboard. He took a breath. “But you won’t be able to help them with your leg like that.” he gestured to the deep red lines of blood dripping down Falst’s calf.
“I- fine. Okay, heal the fucking thing.” Falst sighed and sat down on the forest floor with a wince, his leg extended out. Erin leaned down to heal him, but as he was just about to start, a scream- Kendal’s voice, Erin registered- echoed from the clearing above them. He heard two loud thumps, as if the chimera’s head had hit two objects, and then there was a hissing noise, low and sharp. Falst pricked up his ears.
A mist swept out from the clearing; it was faint green, sparkling, and moving fast towards the two of them. Falst stumbled to his feet and Erin tried to move away, but it was no good. The fog hit them before they had a chance to start running. Erin could feel his panic being shoved to the back of his head, leaving his mind empty and dark. Distantly, he heard a thump as his body hit the ground, but he didn’t really care. The darkness was nice, really. It was blissful to sleep quietly for a change, without that stupid dragon whispering to him.