FVN 5-15 Lindwurm
5-15 Lindwurm
5-15 Lindwurm
The skies turned darker and darker as time passed as if to signify the impending tumult that was about to beset Erin and her companions.
“We are surrounded,” said Siv, who had also climbed on top of the carriage’s cart. “I smell the scent of hostiles from all sides.”
“Let them come,” Amyra scoffed with a grin. “We are the followers of the Dragon God. We should not be afraid of them. It is them who should be afraid of us.”
Nivia rolled her gaze upon hearing the Augur’s bold words but she did not make any remark, having gotten used to Amyra’s arrogance.
“The Dragon God is dead,” muttered Aedan, ironically, who was the heir to the dead god’s throne.
“A god is never truly dead as long as no one loses faith in them,” Amyra countered. “Your words, Your Grace, not mine.”
“...I must have been drunk when I said that.”
“When was the last time you got drunk, Your Grace?”
Aedan shrugged. “When I said those words, I suppose.”
“They’re coming!” Lyra shouted, bringing everyone’s attention in the direction she was gazing at.
To their right, from quite a distance away, a swarm of tiny flying creatures were heading towards them.
“What are those things?” Nivia asked with a ghastly frown.
“Jagged Wings,” Siv answered in a mumble that was barely audible. “Nasty creatures. Watch out for their wings. It can cut through wood like cheese.”
“The Skinwalkers again?”
“Skinwalkers or not, they will rue the day they turned us into their enemies.”
While the Elf and the Beastkin were bantering, the Jagged Wings came close enough for all to see their nasty appearances. There were hundreds of them. True to their name, the Jagged Wings had wings with edges resembling that of a saw.
While they were only as big as a toddler, they were thousands of times deadlier than one. As proof, their wings grazed the tree trunks and branches as they flew, easily cutting those wood down.
“Shall I just burn them all at once?” Amyra asked.
“No,” Nivia immediately rebuked. “You’ll cause a forest fire.”
“Allow me,” Erin said and unleashed bolts of lightning that easily struck down the Jagged Wings with deadly precision. However, Erin could only strike down so many at once.
The Jagged Wings still had more than half of their numbers when Erin’s spell barrage came to an end, but the group didn’t despair.
Aedan shot down as many as he could with his rifle. Nivia and Lyra brought down as many as they could with their arrows. Meanwhile, Amyra could only just watch as all of her means of ranged attacks would only result in burning down the whole forest.
Aera and Lilian had their hands full with the reins, so they couldn’t join in on the assault.
It was at that moment Lilian thought of something and spoke up. “Amyra, sweetheart, how about you take the reins and I’ll take your place in the assault. I can hurt the enemies without destroying the whole forest.”
“What? You mean to be on a passive duty while we are—”
“Listen to her,” Erin said, cutting the Augur off before she could complain any further.
Amyra immediately complied and switched with Lilian.
Without any help, Lilian climbed on top of the carriage with graceful movements as if the rushing winds did not affect her balance at all. Once there, she readied a few green stones in her hands, gripping them tightly as they glowed.
When the remaining Jagged Wings flew close enough to the two carriages, barbed vines emerged from the ground and impaled all of the remaining Jagged Wings.
“Should have let me intervene sooner, won’t you agree, Erin?” Lilian asked with a titter.
“Better late than never,” Erin responded. “We have more incoming.”
As soon as Erin warned her companions, a loud screech filled the air. Erin and Nivia winced in pain as the sharp noise resounded.
“Oh... shite,” Aedan cursed under his breath.
“What was that?!” Aera asked in a frightened tone.
“That, my dear, is the cry of a Wyvern,” Lilian answered with her usual ever-present smile but a faint hint of unease was present in her expression.
“Ah... that’s not good,” Amyra muttered as she looked to the sky and saw a great winged terror splitting the storm clouds.
“There’s only one Dragon God but many like to believe there’s two. In truth, there’s only one but a coin has two sides.”
Erin immediately understood Aedan’s implication. “This... Aerys... is the dark side of Aeryo?”
“That’s one way to look at it. It would be more apt to say Aerys is the physical manifestation of Aeryo’s darkness. The Aerysians are those that believe Aerys is the true Dragon God, the true side of Aeryo.”
“His Grace had taken the liberty to hunt all those bastards down to avoid Aeryo’s name from being tarnished.” Amyra nonchalantly said.
“But somehow, we are being pursued by Aerysians as we speak,” Nivia pointed out.
“Ideas are immortal,” Aedan retorted. “You can’t kill an idea. You can only replace it.”
Suddenly, a loud roar swept over the group.
“There’s a lot of them,” Erin said.
“This is getting annoying,” Amyra muttered.
“We’re nearing the cliffs!” Aera shouted as rows of hills came into sight.
“Things are about to get more than annoying,” Aedan remarked.
“What do we do?” Aera asked in a rush. “Slow down?”
A Drake emerged from the forest at that moment, nearly ramming into the carriages. There were three riders on top of the Drake, all wearing a similar kind of armour as the zealots Aedan had just eliminated.
The Drake began chasing the carriages down after its appearance and the riders readied themselves to leap onto the carriages at any moment.
Erin used Warp and moved herself to the back of the Drake but she nearly missed her timing and positioning. She quickly regained her poise and bearings before flourishing her swords at the armoured zealots.
Two of the zealots immediately fell victim to Erin’s graceful and deadly bladework but the third parried her slash and countered with his own.
Erin performed a counter riposte that ended with the tip of her sword through the zealot’s neck. The notification of her experience’s increment assured her of her enemies’ death but that wasn’t needed as the bodies simply fell off the Drake.
“Forgive me,” Erin said before stabbing her sword into the Drake’s head and quickly leaping towards the carriage afterwards with Lightning Rush.
“That was neat,” Lyra praised.
“And dangerous,” Erin replied. “One wrong step and everything could have ended very differently.”
“If you are so worried, maybe you should stop doing that sort of thing,” Aedan suggested.
Erin chuckled. “Not in a million years.”
Aedan was about to give a witty retort when suddenly ducked down, pulling Amyra and Nivia with him. Erin also ducked low, taking Lyra with her in her sudden deliberate fall. Siv did not duck down but merely took a few steps back.
A beam of red energy streaked overhead the carriage, barely missing the group.
“What was that!?” Aera screamed. Though she was the furthest away from the beam being the one in the coach seat, she did feel the intense deadly energy from the beam.
“I have not felt this energy in years but... it’s a Lindwurm, no?” Amyra ventured a guess as she picked herself up.
“Yes, it is a Lindwrum,” Aedan confirmed.
Erin stared in the direction where the beam came from. “What’s a Lindwurm?” she asked.
“A serpent dragon with a pair of front limbs but no hind limbs.”
“How is its tenacity?”
“It dies if you sever its head like most living things but its scaly hide is quite tough... I wager only your Mystic Blade can cut it but even then, it moves very quickly too. You’ll have to be faster if you want to cut its head.”
“Or strike its heart,” Amyra added.
“Good luck getting through its steel-like ribs that encaged its heart.”
In the middle of their discussion, Erin felt the first drop of rain. And then, an idea appeared in her head and she smiled. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”
“Thought of something good, Mistress?” Siv inquired after noticing Erin’s sudden smile.
“Yes,” Erin answered as her smile widened. “The storm would become our ally after all. Well, my ally, at least.”