Ratface kept the kid goblin, who she’d started to think of as Ox, close to her as she moved over the Anna. The squire had met up with Fulgora and the two were hold up behind a faint lip in the ground that the serpents writhing had created.
Anna whiled and aimed her wand at Ratface. Ratface returned the favour with her crossbow, pushing Ox behind her.
There was a tense moment until Fulgora sighed.
“It’s an empty threat Ratface, we can’t use magic at the moment,” she said.
Ratface frowned. Last time she’d been around the empty people could still do magic it was just weaker. What was the difference between now and then?
She felt the others gaze on her and stopped her musing to take them in. Anna was furious, her body was tense like she was holding the fury in place, but it was Fulgora that bothered Ratface.
The woman was just watching her warily, no hate in her eyes but all trust had winked out as well.
“You really let this elf in?” she asked.
Ratface sighed. She lowered the crossbow but didn’t completely move it away in case Anna moved too quickly.
“I didn’t know he planned to do all this, but I did help him, he had enough leverage that I considered it worth it.”
Anna looked past her at Ox incredulously.
“The goblin?”
“The child,” said Ratface, her anger boiling over. How dare she. “They were locked up with barely any food, look at them!”
Ox peaked around her Ratface, he was gaunt and now that she had the chance to look him over, she could see faint marks where something had punctured his skin.
“Don’t you both want to be knights? Aren’t you meant to protect the weak?”
“We’re meant to protect humans,” said Anna. She couldn’t meet Ratface’s eyes when she said it.
Ratface nearly shot her on the spot, but Ox was holding onto her leg, and she wasn’t about to turn this into a fight. She needed the girl unfortunately.
The empty serpent slamming close to them stopped any conversation. Its back was broken and the Lady stood above it triumphantly. Parts of her were flickering out of place and she seemed smaller, but she still grinned.
“You dead thing, I am as much of war as I am of magic, did you really think you could beat me?”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
The serpent looked up at her and laughed. Its back slotted back into place as it launched into her.
It ripped into the Lady’s face and she stumbled back, swatting the empty away. Her face healed but it seemed thinner now.
“You are of war? I am of death,” said the serpent. It slithered around the Lady, circling her, waiting for a moment to strike. “Besides, I too am of magic, and the magic here is mine.”
The empty area around them pulsed and expanded. The glyphs around it faded, then changed. Ratface’s eyes widened. She’d assumed that the empty was just eating the mana, but she was taking it over. All of those glyphs of calling were calling it now. No wonder it was still powerful. But why could it take over the glyphs? Wasn’t this the Lady’s domain?
Ratface looked at the mana around the two of them. The rest had been overwhelmed by the empty which made watching it easier. Each time their mana clashed, the Lady’s was pushed back, like it didn’t have a foundation. The Lady herself was made of mana.
In comparison, the empty goddess had weight. Her mana leant on her physical form for its foundation.
“It’s the vessel, it’s giving her a foundation to fight,” she said.
The empty goddess glanced at her in irritation, then recognition.
“The space, you ruined my home,” she said. With then attention on her Ratface could hear all the screaming and it was all she could do to stand up. Ox clutched at her and she felt the screaming be puled away as he concentrated. He threw something away from her and she could move.
The empty goddess looked between the two of them and back at the Lady. She slapped her tail against the ground and a pulse reverberated through the place.
Around them, the creatures the serpent had killed raised up from the ground silently. They stumbled into place, parts of them stitching back together. Where one had been too destroyed it would shamble together with another making a strange creature of limbs and teeth.
“Kill them,” the goddess whispered.
The creatures streamed out. Thankfully they didn’t just go for Ratface and Ox, but for everyone, even Mathilde and the elf. The two broke apart as monsters reached for them. One of the orc girls arms was dangling uselessly but the other was still enough to grab a creature and throw it away.
The storm serpent in the sky screeched in defiance as some flying creatures reached for it. It slammed them with lightning but still more overwhelmed it and it got lower to the ground as it writhed against them. It wasn’t losing but it was struggling.
One of the creatures got close to their group. None of them had moved yet with Ratface’s crossbow still facing Anna.
She whirled and shot it in the head. The creature dropped and the four of them packed closer, thought Ratface kept an eye on Ox around the two of them.
“Whatever betrayal I’ve made, we’re all agreed this has to stop,” she said, “we need to get out of here, get Abigail to help.”
“The Lady’s Champion will surely be useful,” said Anna.
Fulgora drew her sword and shield. Ratface had never seen her draw them since they’d met.
“Their numbers thin here.” She gestured with her sword to where she and Ratface had come into the square in the first place “If we can push through there’s an edge close enough that we might be able to call someone.
More of the creatures ran toward them, none of them making a sound.
Ratface switched her crossbow out for her sword and dagger. She handed the crossbow to Ox, they’d know how to use it, all little goblins did. They proved her right by nailing one of the creatures running at them.
Ratface looked at the numbers before them, they kept getting up as well. Her eyes lingered on the break in their numbers they needed to make it to. She could feel Ox shaking behind her.
“It’s just a small distance,” she assured them.
She wished she could believe her own lies.
