Chapter 177 Boss Fight

Chapter 177: Boss Fight

The wails of anger from the mage echoed as I shuffled down the corridor. I fumbled with the cap of the aether potion and sucked down a little more than I had planned in my haste. I immediately returned to directing the aether to heal my injuries.

My head started to clear. The body of the ice drake should slow down the mage. I was shoved hard from behind by multiple impacts. Arcane bolts sizzled into my armor, burning holes and reaching my flesh and cooking muscle. This was just not a fair fight if I couldn’t get close to the cursed elven summoner. Two of the strikes hit and burned into the back of my thighs, cooking my hamstrings and making my escape more troublesome as my legs didn’t want to work properly.

I could have really used that greater healing potion I gave Maveith about now. I pulled the lesser elven healing potion I took from Raelia and drank it. It did not help much with my extensive injuries, just closing my wounds. The minor cooling effect across my skin was still welcome.

I did have other potions and drank one of the major stamina potions. It collided with the remnants of the healing potion in my stomach, creating a burning, nauseous sensation. Maybe mixing potions was a bad idea, but the warm, revitalizing energy flooded into the limbs of my damaged body. It allowed me to break into a run, the pain fading like a bad memory. When this potion wore off, I would be in for a world of hurt.

I didn’t look back for the summoner as I turned into the corridor for the earth drake. The earth drake was, as we left it, dead. I was halfway across the large chamber, just past the drake, when I slammed into an invisible wall. The jarring halt to my sprint had me bounce back onto my ass and roll on the dirt-layered floor. I scrambled backward to use the dead drake as cover. I think I broke my nose as blood leaked across my lips, and I spat the metallic taste away.

When things settled, I breathed heavily, “You are fast for an old man.” I had used my limited elvish to hopefully confuse him. Instead, he laughed at me.

“You are butchering a beautiful language legionnaire. Just another reason you have to die.” There was madness, anger, and condescension in his tone.

I was not going to talk my way out of this, and he would not let me escape. Raelia would probably side with the summoner if I brought her out. I doubted the goblin would be much of an ally—maybe a distraction. I searched my dimensional space, retrieving the black-tipped spear, the spider-engraved short sword, and the other greater stamina potion.

I gripped the spear, as it was my only ranged weapon. “I am sorry about your ice drake. But she didn’t seem like she was in a playful mood.” I was hoping to anger him into making a mistake, but I immediately regretted my words—the fly doesn’t antagonize the spider when it when caught.

“Kylma was a dear friend…” Using his voice to orient myself, I stood and hurled the spear at the summoner. He waved his right hand, and I could see the spell form flash. He was a skilled mage; not only was he able to create spells almost instantly, but he also needed a single hand to create the layered spell forms. The spear thudded into another invisible wall. It caused an echo in the room, and I ducked back behind the carcass of the earth drake.

This was not going well. The spear was my only ranged weapon unless I wanted to start throwing purple potatoes at him. His imperious voice echoed in the room, “Did you kill this earth drake as well? I suppose it was not much more difficult than a wyvern.” The summoner had an amused tone, as it was clear he had me cornered. His quickly changing emotions had me worried he may have lost his grip on sanity.

I felt the stamina potion wearing off and drank the second one while the stand-off continued. It was a struggle to keep the potion down. Drinking so many potions in such a short time was probably not smart. With the black blade in one hand and the spider blade in the other, I planned to rush to the exit. I was guessing whatever his wall was made of, I could destroy it with the two runic weapons, descend the stairs, and exit the dungeon in the safe room there.

I took a deep breath and released my distraction, my aether getting dangerously low. The goblin didn’t cooperate. Instead of running and pulling the attention away from me, it was disoriented and tried to hide under the earth drake’s body. It was squeezing itself into the floor, making it as small as possible to hide. Shit, the goblin was useless—or just smarter than me. But then again, no time had passed for it, and it had been paralyzed with fear when I returned it to my dimensional space.

I pushed off the floor, my blades extended and searched for the invisible wall. The black blade contacted it first, and I swung the spider-blade overhead. The wall had a slight reverberation to it. I attacked in a berserk frenzy, and the spider blade drew on my aether dangerously with each strike. I never defeated the wall as the world lit up in a flash of energy embraced me. Lightning washed over me, forcing my muscles to clench and straining my joints painfully.

When the lightning paused, all I smelled was cooked flesh, and my vision was blurry. I moaned and rolled in the dirt. I needed my sight so focused on healing my eyes and ears while trying to ignore the pain. The soft shuffle of feet came to my ears. The mage was approaching. It didn’t take much pretending to continue my pitiful moans. I just needed the mage to get within ten feet.

My bloodshot eyes focused on the summoner, his dark blue robes unnaturally moving with him. Then the bastard stopped twenty feet away! I was expecting some gloating speech and was not disappointed. “Legionnaire...” The goblin took this moment to scramble over the drake and escape the one-sided battle between me and Traeliorn.

As the mage turned to the noise and movement, I rolled to my knees, planted my foot, and lunged toward the mage. My body protested the call for rapid movement. I just needed to get close enough. I outlined the mage’s head and moved it into my dimensional space.

My veins and arteries burned with a warning of being overtaxed. I had been using my aether pool over and over in the last dozen minutes. Castile had warned me about using too much aether or risking burning out the aether channels in my body. My body was warning me I was getting close to this point, but it didn’t matter because I had won.

Then, I experienced the backlash of Traeliorn’s resistance. Not only did his head remain in place, but my head felt like it was splitting and felt like my head was the one that had been removed. Time slowed for me as I fell to the earth. I did the only thing I could and flung the short spider blade at the mage, who was turning to face me once again. The mage’s aether shield flared, but the runic weapon penetrated it enough to cut into the hand he had put up to block it. The cut was not even deep, and I would have laughed if I was not in such pain.

I fumbled inside my armor for the aether potion, only to find the dungeon vial had cracked, and just wet dirt remained on its exterior. I sucked on the dirty vial, trying to claim even a drop of the restorative potion. The grit and crunchiness of dirt filled my mouth.

Traeliorn was moving, but I could do nothing. He was moving slowly to pick up the spider blade, more interested in it than me. As he studied the blade, his face scrunched with concern. His eyes trailed from the blade to me and back. “A mage assassin then,” he finally said. “I would have never guessed it by your looks, boy. Still, I don’t need my magic to deal with you.”

He expertly spun the short blade in his hand and frowned. His eyes hardened, and he attacked. I was weaponless, my black blade a dozen steps behind me. I pulled one of the fire bear pelts as a momentary shield, my veins burning with the small expenditure of aether. I scrambled back to reclaim my long black blade. It worked, and I was standing and facing the irate summoner. Although standing might be too strong a word, it took all my will to force my body into an upright position.

Traeliorn didn’t hesitate and rushed me with the short spider blade, dancing dangerously. The exchange was fast, and I thought of myself as an equal swordsman, but I was heavily injured. He scored a light slash on the back of my hand, parting the flesh and exposing the tendon underneath. I opened some distance and tried to close the wound with my aether.

Nothing. I couldn’t feel my aether core or any aether in my body at all. The summoner smirked, “Not so fun when it happens to you.” The spider blade had a grimy, oily coating on it. It must have created the poison when it pulled the aether from my body. It didn’t take a leap in logic to figure out the poison blocked my access to aether or emptied my aether core.

The pause in our fight gave me a chance to ask a question, “Is it permanent?”

“It is your blade, legionnaire. Do you not know what a magebane is?” He narrowed his eyes, suspicious that I was trying to trick him. He was obviously not going to tell me anything, but I thought he would be angrier if it was permanent. 

The goblin dashed out, and the movement had both of us turn to watch the goblin. The goblin had circled and picked up the spear. He struggled with its weight, and I thought he might be an ally as he hefted it. Instead, the goblin ran off with the spear down the corridor to where the dead owlbear lay. The summoner watched it flee, bemused at my shock.

Traeliorn shifted his stance and removed his robes in a swirl to give himself greater movement. I drew my belt knife in my off hand as we circled each other. Traeliorn had a side stance to reduce his profile while I maintained an angled stance to bring the dagger into play. We engaged again, and my joints protested the required speed of the movement.

“Not just a mage, then,” I said after a few exchanges, sporting multiple slashes on my armor. I had a longer reach, so it was extremely annoying that I was losing.

The confident elf smirked and spoke in Latin for the first time: “I have kept fit through the centuries by exercising with some of the best Rangers in Bartiradian lands. I can usually hold my own with a blade, but I will say you are not unskilled yourself.” I acknowledged the compliment with a short nod. He didn’t rest and moved to engage again.

I started to feel the haziness of my aether core once again as we fought. The poison from the spider-blade was not permanent, and if it wore off the mage, I was doomed. The problem was that Traeliorn was not giving me an opening, and he countered when I gave him one. The dance of death continued as I kept trying to coalesce my aether. Although I now knew it was there, it was like trying to collect water with a sieve.

There! I held it long enough to pull the elven spear from the armory into my hand. I dropped both blades in favor of the ancient weapon, parried Traeliorn’s attack, and wiped the spear in an arc before his retreat. His right thigh sported a deep slash, some of the muscle exposed.

I didn’t give him time to retrieve anything as I pressed him with the ancient spear. With Traeliorn being hobbled by the leg injury, I was suddenly in the superior position, and he seemed unfamiliar fighting against a spear-wielding opponent. I scored an abdomen strike and a second strike on the same thigh. He tried to retrieve something in his belt, but that was his downfall. I pierced his sternum and drove him back into the wall, pinning him.

He was trying to thumb the top off of the potion in his hand. Rather than stop him, I moved inside his guard and wrenched the mage bane blade from his hand. He moved the potion to his lips, and I used the spider blade to open his throat. My aether channels burned as the blade sucked what little aether my body had to create its poison. The healing potion tried to knit the flesh together, so I sawed away until his head was free of his body.

The mage’s body slid down the wall, the spear tip scrapping the stone as it went. I had the mage’s head in one hand and the dripping spider blade in the other. I dropped the mage’s head in the dirt and joined him on the floor. The adrenaline of combat ebbed away, and I felt every injury on my abused body start to intensify as adrenaline left me.  

I pulled a canteen of water from my dimensional space, ignoring the aether burn for the act. I sucked the full canteen dry and belched. I didn’t even bother to offer any to the Summoner. I was very sleepy from the effort, multiple potions, aether backlash, mage bane poison, and my injuries. If I fell asleep here, though, I may wake up inside an earth drake’s stomach.

I collected my black blade. I positioned the mage’s body and head on his robes and started to pull the headless corpse of the mage back to the safe room. Once my aether burn lessened some, I would pull out the collector. The corridors seemed to have gotten much longer since the last time I walked them, and every step was a chore. The ice drake was still mostly blocking the corridor, and I would need to try the collector on it soon or risk losing its essence. I pulled the mage past the drake and into the safe room.

The black-tipped spear was next to the owlbear in the center of the safe room, and the goblin had rummaged through my pack and consumed everything edible. It was now in a contented food coma and oblivious to my presence. I guessed the creature had not eaten in days. I looked at the dungeon exit and wondered how the company was managing.