The Star of Morcyth: The Morcyth Saga Book Five (36 page)

Easily half the size of a horse and running
like a dog, it charges with a growl. Jiron’s horse rears up and he
vaults off the back, landing unbalanced on the ground. Falling to
the ground, he rolls and quickly regains his feet. The creature
sinks its teeth into the horse’s chest, literally ripping a large
section out. With a scream the horse collapses in a heap.

James’ horse neighs in fear and turns,
bolting back down the way they had come. It comes to an abrupt stop
when another of the creatures enters the roadway and blocks its
path. Eyes rolling white, the horse cries out again and bolts
suddenly to the side, causing James to lose his balance and falls
off the horse to the ground.

“James!” Jiron cries out. “What the hell are
these?” The creature which had killed his horse stands there with a
strip of the horse’s hide dangling from the corner of its mouth as
it stares at him. It looks like a giant wolf or some kind of dog.
Long sharp teeth fill its mouth and a malevolent intelligence
stares from out of its eyes.

Moving slowly and never taking his eyes from
the creature, he backs up to where James is getting himself off the
ground. In the pits he never had the opportunity to fight animals.
Though confident in his prowess as a fighter, the size and ferocity
of this creature gives him more doubts about the outcome than he’s
had in quite some time. A growl behind him causes him to glance
back and see the other creature on the road and James making his
way toward him quickly.

A sudden shimmering forms around them as
James creates the barrier. As if that was a signal the creatures
charge right at them and slam into the barrier. Knocked back for a
moment they begin circling.

“Do something,” Jiron says as they continue
moving around the perimeter of the barrier.

James takes the slug in his hand and
launches it at one of them. It strikes the creature directly in the
middle of the chest and seems to pass right through without causing
any damage. “Damn!” he says in shock as the slug hits the ground
behind the creature. It didn’t look as if the slug had any affect
upon it at all, the creature didn’t even slow its pace.

“They’re not entirely real!” he says to
Jiron.

“What?” he asks.

“The slug went right through them,” he
explains.

“How is that possible?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” James replies. “But I doubt
if your knives will have any effect either.”

The two creatures continue to pace around
the edge of the barrier, their eyes never leaving those within. One
comes to a stop and turns to face directly at the barrier. Raising
one of its forepaws, the creature touches the barrier.

Aaaah!

James cries out from the sudden increase in
magic being pulled from him to maintain the barrier. Despite the
enormity of magic rapidly being taken, he watches in shocked
amazement as the creature’s paw slowly inches its way through the
barrier and touches the ground on the inside. The rest of the
creature slowly begins to follow.

Jiron moves to the part of the creature on
the inside of the barrier and strikes it with a knife. When the
blade comes into contact with the creature, it sends a burning
sensation through to his hand. Crying out in pain, he releases the
knife and looks to find an angry red burn now upon his hand. The
knife which had struck the creature lies on the ground and is
glowing red.

He glances back to James who stares with
eyes wide in surprise. “Get back here,” he tells him.

Jiron nods and returns to his side. “What
are you going to do?” The creature’s snout has now begun to inch
its way through.

James doesn’t reply, his mind is working too
hard on the problem. He comes to notice the area where the
creatures have been pacing along the outside of the barrier has
been scorched from their passing. Add to that the reaction when
Jiron struck it with his knife and he comes to a disturbing
conclusion.

Creatures of fire? Hell hounds maybe?
Where did they come from?
Sensing the hand of Dmon-Li in this,
he tries to come up with an effective attack. Already the creature
has managed to get its head in and is starting to move its other
foreleg through. It won’t be much longer before it’ll be completely
inside.

Jiron puts his other knife in his belt. He
knows it will be useless and there’s nothing he can do here. It all
rests on James now.

How do you fight a fire creature? Cold?
Water? Ice?
Glancing above them to the clouds, an idea forms
and he staggers slightly as he begins to implement it. Jiron puts
an arm around him as he settles to the ground.

The clouds above become denser as they race
together from all directions. James is beginning to sweat, the
strain from maintaining both the shield and summoning the storm is
rapidly draining his strength.

By the time the creature has its other leg
and all of its head within the barrier, drops begin to fall from
the sky. When they strike the creatures, hissing can be heard as
they quickly evaporate.

The rain begins to fall in increasing
intensity, but that’s not what he’s wanting. He hunts through the
clouds above until he locates what he wants and pulls it closer.
The strain of doing so brings black spots to his eyes and he’s not
sure how much longer he’s going to last. Hopefully long enough.

The temperature begins to drop as he brings
the system he wants closer and the rain changes to hail. Where the
rain didn’t seem to bother the creatures, the hail does. As it
strikes them, it almost appears to be causing them pain. Also the
creature making its way through the barrier halts its progress. The
pull of magic needed to maintain the barrier eases off
slightly.

Watching the other creature on the outside,
Jiron notices that where the hail is striking, dark patches are
beginning to appear. “I think it’s working,” he says encouragingly.
There was also a note of hope in his voice too.

James has his eyes closed and can tell that
though this may be working to slow and bother them, he’ll have to
do more in order to vanquish them. Besides, he’ll not be able to
keep this up for long. The clouds above are fighting him as the
winds in the upper reaches work to pull the storms away.

Maintaining the hail storm, he sends out an
additional tendril of magic toward what’s already fallen on the
ground around them. Ice pellets begin moving along the ground
toward the creatures and begin attaching themselves. He also
attempts to change the barrier, similar to how he did it another
time long ago. Back then he changed it to fire to burn off an
acidic ooze, this time he’s changing it to extreme cold.

As it begins to change, the temperature
within the barrier drops dramatically and the creature caught in
the middle of it begins to exhibit panic. It tries to get out but
James continues to reduce the temperature of the barrier and it
cries out from the pain being inflicted.

The other creature on the outside starts
growling and snapping at the barrier but when it comes into contact
with it, an audible sizzle sounds. The hailstorm still falls
outside, the hail beginning to accumulate around them. The odor of
sulfur begins to permeate the air as the creatures are struck by
the falling hail.

James and Jiron begin shivering from the
temperature within the barrier, it has to be below freezing now,
way below freezing. The creature caught in the barrier starts
thrashing about from side to side in a panicked attempt to free
itself but is unable to extricate itself from the barrier. Finally,
with a nightmarish cry, the half within the barrier comes away and
falls to the ground. Erupting in a cloud of noxious black smoke, it
disappears, leaving a charred area on the ground.

With the destruction of the one caught in
the barrier, the strain on James diminishes dramatically and he’s
able to concentrate on the other one. It’s visibly weakened from
the ice coating it, steam rising in clouds from where it sticks to
its side.

Releasing the clouds above he turns his
attention fully on the ice lying upon the ground outside the
barrier. He has to use his senses for the barrier now has a layer
of ice upon it and nothing on the other side can be seen from
within. His mind is beginning to lose its battle with
consciousness, he knows it’s simply a matter of seconds before he’s
gone. Using his powers in one last surge, he gathers the hail on
the ground outside and creates his last spell before passing
out.

Jiron is there by his friend when he feels
him slump into unconsciousness. Making sure he’s okay, he gets to
his feet and goes to the barrier to listen. As he draws near, the
ice shrouded barrier shatters as the second creature smashes
through.

Covered in ice, acrid steam rising from it
in a cloud, the creature bursts through with a growl. Knocked
backward by the creature, Jiron hits the ground but rolls quickly
back to his feet. The creature swings its head from side to side as
it contemplates James and Jiron. Making its choice, it emits a
growl which sends shivers of fear through him and launches itself
at Jiron.

Moving quickly, he races to a nearby boulder
and jumps upward, landing upon it. Not taking the time to look
backward, he then takes two steps and jumps again, this time
grabbing a tree limb and swinging up just as the creature leaps to
grab him. He can feel the heat from the creature as it passes just
below him.

Coming to rest on top of the limb, he
watches as the creature paces along the ground below. It seems as
if the creature is trying to figure out the best way to get him
down. Not in immediate danger of dying, he glances back and sees
James lying there amid the melting remains of the ice which had
coated the exterior of the barrier.

His eyes widen is amazement when he notices
two objects lying not three feet from the shattered edge of the
barrier. He rubs his eyes to make sure they’re not playing tricks
on him. Sure enough, lying there in the ice are two knives entirely
made of ice. How they came to be there he doesn’t know, probably
James when he knew he was about to pass out.

With the creature pacing beneath him, he
can’t just hop down and rush over there. He takes in his
surroundings and notices where the ground drops away just to the
right side of the tree. Moving from limb to limb, he makes his way
over and sees that the drop-off goes down about twenty feet or so.
Making up his mind as to his course of action, he makes his way
back to the far side of the tree, the creature pacing beneath him
the whole time.

Getting into position, he takes a deep
calming breath as he takes hold of the branch he’s standing upon.
He watches the creature in its pacing and waits until it’s in a
good position for what he plans, then he swings down like a gymnast
and sails through the air toward where the drop-off lies.

The creature immediately surges in pursuit
as he hits the ground running. Praying this works, he takes several
steps and jumps to grab a limb overhanging the edge of the
drop-off. Swinging up onto the branch, he just escapes being caught
by the creature as it jumps after him and sails over the edge of
the drop-off.

Not taking the time to congratulate himself,
he immediately drops down to the ground and races for the ice
knives lying on the ground over by James. Before he even reaches
them he hears a growl behind him and glances back to find the
creature has already regained the top and is coming after him.

He redoubles his speed. It’s a race to see
if he can reach the knives before the creature reaches him. When he
draws close he dives for them, takes one in each hand and then
rolls back to his feet facing the approaching creature.

No sooner is he back on his feet than the
creature is upon him. Lashing out with a paw, the creature tries to
connect with his midsection. He deftly deflects the attack with one
of the ice knives which elicits a roar of pain from the creature
when the knife connects. “You didn’t like that did you?” Jiron asks
as the creature looks at him with malevolent hate.

The knives are extremely cold but not so as
he can’t hold onto them. After seeing the reaction the creature had
to the touch of the knife, he launches into an attack, his
confidence once more restored in his ability to hold his own.
Striking out at the creature, he connects with one knife and scores
a long sizzling line across one of its forelegs.

Snarling in pain and anger, the creature
advances upon him incredibly fast. Jiron concentrates on defense
and counters every attack the creature makes. After several passes
and scoring numerous hits upon it, he suddenly realizes that his
knives are smaller than they had been.
They’re melting!
The
heat of the creature is causing them to melt with every strike. He
needs to finish this soon or he won’t have any weapon left with
which to fight.

He backs a little to plan his attack and
kicks up some of the hail still peppered across the ground. It does
little to slow the creature. Suddenly the creature leaps at him and
he swerves to the right but not before receiving a long scrape
along one arm. Burning pain erupts from the red welts forming along
the cut as the heat of the creature burns him.

Taking the fight to it, he launches into a
series of blows which the creature deflects but not without
receiving wounds from the knives. Finally seeing the opening he’s
been waiting for, he closes the distance rapidly and plunges one of
the knives into the chest of the creature.

Bellowing in pain, it staggers to the side
and then he plunges the other knife though where the neck and the
shoulders meet. Stepping back, he watches the creature thrash about
upon the ground until it finally comes to rest. Then it erupts into
a cloud of noxious black smoke just as the other had. When the
smoke clears, the two ice knives are gone.