Chapter Eighteen: The Den's Last Roar

I felt it the moment the Steelclaw Mother roared: the raw force of her shout. But it was so much more once it hit me, once the debuff was applied.

Not just in my ears, but in my bones. A wrongness, creeping cold into my ligaments like an indescribable frost coating my bones. My limbs slowed, dragged down by a weight that wasn’t mine. And by a fear that I knew didn’t belong to me, but that still crawled inside my skin like a parasitic dread.

My eyes focused in on the debuff notifcation:

[Warning: You have been affected by the Weakening Shout debuff. Strength and Dexterity reduced by 10% for 30 seconds.]

I clenched my jaw. No. This wasn’t my fear. This wasn’t real. Not really.

And I hated being manipulated. Fire formed in my hand, summoned from my Mana and indignation.

I threw my fireball. Directly at the Steelclaw Mother. Her debuff didn't affect my spellcasting, so fuck her.

The orb of flame screamed through the air toward the Steelclaw Mother’s snarling face—only for one of her kin to hurl itself into the spell’s path. My fireball hit the brave little idiot mid-leap and exploded, hurling its charred body backward.

"We need to thin the herd!" Varashan shouted.

There were too many of them.

"Way ahead of you!" I snarled.

Fifteen fire wisps flared into existence around me, orbiting in fast, furious spirals. I shoved [Raging Sorcery] into each one and hurled them forward, a swarm of glowing orange death homing in on the Steelclaws ringing their queen.

The Mother reacted, slamming a clawed paw into the ground. A tremor split the cavern, racing toward me with a sudden burst of jagged, rising stone.

I [Mana-Flickered] back, blue energy crackling as I disappeared from the surging earth and reappeared ten feet away--just as my fire wisps detonated across the Mother's protectors.

The min-blasts lifted dust, scorched fur, and shattered stone. Screams of pain tore from thick-throated maws.

Varashan moved as well. Spear low, then thrusting upward like a dancer’s step turned lethal. His blade pierced a Steelclaw's eye and he rolled under a retaliatory swipe, coming up in a crouch as green skill-energy coated his weapon. A second thrust from his now skill-infused spear knocked the monster he’d blinded backwards as it howled.

As I reappeared out of the path of the rising trail of earth-spikes, I mana-blinked again—this time towards the Steelclaw Mother.

My reforming feet hit the stone near her, just as I summoned more flame around my hand. [Burning Hands] flared to life across my left fist in a glow of fierce orange. Another Steelclaw lunged at me, intent on keeping me away from its queen. I met it with a punch straight to the jaw. I triggered [Raging Sorcery] mid-hit.

Boom.

The spell exploded from my knuckles. Fire, force, and fury launched the beast back away from me as it whinnied a guttural cry.

More fire wisps formed around me, and were sent screaming toward the Matriarch's remaining kin--just to keep them off me, to keep them from interfering. She’d begun charging now. Her massive, van-sized body barreling toward me, fury at my indiscriminate slaying of her children in every lurch of her muscled limbs.

I threw another fireball at her as well.

She roared and raised her claws.

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Not to shield, but to cut.

Skill energy sheathed the steel blades on her paws as she slashed the fireball from the air before it could detonate. Magic scattered like sparks, doused.

I growled, focused, and ran. I didn't know Skills could counter my spells, but now I did.

I ran and leapt.

I [Mana-Flickered] forward at the peak of my jump, using my movement's velocity to reappear above the Matriarch’s hulking spine. My [raging blade] formed in my hands mid-fall. I raised it high as I landed on the huge Steelclaw Mother's mantle.

And then another Steelclaw lunged at me from her flank.

Gwyn blurred into existence, teleporting with a rip of blue light and a roar of her own—and slammed into the interloper mid-air, the two of them tumbling down into a crater in the cavern's floor. She ripped and clawed, graceful even in chaos, dodging the bear-mole’s swipes and tearing flesh in return.

I stabbed downward into the Steelclaw Mother's back.

My flaming blade punched through hide, but just barely--the thrust slowed. The Matriarch’s flesh was as thick as my own armor, much more resilient than her smaller brood's. I snarled and pumped [Raging Sorcery] into the blade.

She reared onto her hind legs.

And I disappeared in another burst of mana.

Another boom.

My sword detonated in her back. I landed in a crouch a few feet away, rolling up to my feet with the new acrobatic grace granted by my journeyman proficiency.

Another flame-born sword flared into being in my grip.

The Matriarch was burnt. Roaring. Bleeding now.

But still very much alive.

She charged me again. And I ran to meet her.

Gwyn, bloodied but unbowed, sprang from the side and latched onto the Mother’s neck. Her claws dug in, her fangs struck true. The Matriarch staggered, shook, and slammed herself into a nearby stone pillar to try to dislodge my panther familiar.

Another Steelclaw came for me from the side. I saw it too late.

No time to dodge. But it was roaring as it charged--an instinctive mistake I'd make it pay for.

I threw my free hand up and launched a pack of [Fire Wisps] straight into its mouth, igniting them as they passed its fangs.

Its stomach and jaw blew out. It slid past me, dead on arrival.

The Matriarch shrieked and flung Gwyn off with a sweep of her claws. My panther cried out, her claws skidding across the stone.

I roared in return. "Gwyn!"

My right hand blazed with [Burning Hands]. I threw it like a missile, triggering [Raging Sorcery] the moment my fist was coated in the spell's fire. A moment later, the fist-shaped cloud of flame slammed into the Matriarch’s face and burst.

She reeled.

I teleported again. And closed the gap between me and the monster I was targeting.

My blade slashed across the matriach's leg as I reappeared in front of her, cutting a groove I knew had to be deep enough to sting badly.

The monster raised both of its claws off the ground and swiped downward at me. I ducked, rolled beneath her, and flung a fireball at her rear ankle as I passed.

She faltered as her fur was seared away and her now burnt inner flesh exposed.

I stood, spun, and activated [Throw Sword].

My arm lit with emerald skill-energy.

The sword hurled from my hand, guided by my Skill, and pierced straight into the matriarch's throat.

I exploded the blade just as it struck.

The fire shattered her windpipe. Flames belched from her open jaws.

I summoned twenty fire wisps.

They circled her like glowing gnats intent on causing death.

And they exploded as one.

The Matriarch screamed as she was bathed in heat and pain. And in that moment, Gwyn pounced again, landing on the monster's huge face even despite cloud of explosions, and this time biting straight into the monster’s eye.

Blood sprayed across Gwyn's pristine white fur. The Steelclaw Mother reared.

And Varashan—quiet, steady Varashan—charged past me. I'd almost forgotten he was with us. That was my mistake.

The calibani knight's spear flared with green skill-light as he rammed it straight into the matriarch's ruined throat.

The Steelclaw Mother seized as she took the blow.

I appeared beside Varashan with a final flicker of mana and drove my [Raging Blade] straight up through our enemy's open jaw and into her brain.

She froze.

Then toppled.

Varashan and I dove back, rolling and stepping clear. The monster's heavy corpse struck the stone and shook the air.

Gwyn leapt clear from her perch on the huge corpse's face and landed beside us.

The few remaining Steelclaws—broken, bloodied—whimpered and tried to either come to stand or to back away.

I summoned more fire wisps. Just to make sure they didn’t escape.

And they didn’t.

They died in my fire.

Silence fell.

I exhaled, my limbs trembling slightly with fatigue and adrenaline.

Varashan turned to me, panting, his spear dripping with blood. He looked at me like I was something, someone special.

"You..." he said slowly, wonder in his voice.

"What?" I asked.

"You are what we’ve been waiting for. All these years. The way you fought..."

My face flushed. I looked away. “I’m just glad I can help.”

But inside?

Inside, I was overjoyed. I was useful. I felt like somebody in a way I never had before.

And maybe it was arrogant... but I liked that feeling.