On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Forty-Five

The wyrm roared again, white energy slamming into the defensive barrier, shattering into glowing shards of light that bounced off the shrinking wall, several ripping into the attacking trolls, slicing through rocky flesh and drawing foul blood. This barely caused their attacks to falter however, and they continued attacking my weakening barrier with frenzied strikes. Behind them Grulgor was glowering at the huge wyrm, teeth bared in a grimace of rage. Reaching downwards he ripped up a solid chunk of ground that must have weighed near enough a ton, and hurled it upwards towards the wyrm. I don’t think that’s going to work…

Sure enough the mass of earth and stone only travelled up a few metres before crumbling apart and falling to the ground, showering Grulgor with debris. He’s strong, but not very smart. Still, there isn’t much they can do against an opponent that flies…

“What do we do now?” Shaeula asked from beside me, her hand still in mine. “This is very bad indeed. Soon our barrier will crumble and we will be overrun-overrun.”

“I guess we only have one choice. We need to team up with Grulgor and drive off the wyrm. Worst case after that we fall back to the heart of our Territory and use the defences there to fend off the trolls.”

“That will not be easy.” Shaeula lamented. “Grulgor is not one to negotiate, for he only understands violence-violence.”

“Well we can’t fight both so I have to try.” I said. As we were talking rapidly a few more trolls had come from along the river. The wyrm turned towards one of them and unleashed white breath, a streak of light gouging out the ground and blowing the troll into a million glowing fragments. Swallowing down my doubts I strode forwards at pace, spear at the ready.

“Grulgor! We must speak!” I shouted towards him. “We need to join forces to drive off this wyrm!”

The huge troll turned to me, mad eyes glaring. “Who you, little man-thing? Grul says he needs no help from puny man-things, nor little weasels.” He glowered at Shaeula who was nervously cowering beside me, pressed close.

“Oh really?” I snorted as the wyrm sent out another beam, this one towards the bridge which made up Grulgor’s Territory. Metal warped and twisted as the energy mauled it, and a cloud of flame exploded up on the other side of the river. “And how do you propose to bring down something flying so high before it melts you all to nothing? Throwing the rock at it earlier didn’t do much now did it?”

Grulgor spat, gobbets of sizzling acid burning the ground. “Grul says big talk from little weak man. Grul strong, Grul tough, Grul angry. Grul will fight until big snake is dead, then Grul will eat it!”

“I told you there was no point speaking to Grulgor.” Beside me Shaeula sighed. “He has a brain made of rocks. He will not understand the urgency of our situation here-here.”

Grulgor looked at Shaeula beside me, who reflexively shrunk back under his fierce gaze. For a second Grulgor looked puzzled, then he barked a harsh laugh.

“Is that you little weasel? Grul says he thought you died when your soft little kin stopped coming. Grul says they are easy to break. Grul would really like to break you too. Duke Formor would smile at Grul then.”

Duke Formor? “Who’s that?” I asked Shaeula, whose expression had darkened.

“He is one of the lords of the Seelie Court, though not as great as my noble royal father. He leads one of the opposing factions, that Grulgor is a part of-of.”

“Bah, Grul says Duke Formor far greater than your weak weasel-father.” Grul spat again. “You want Grul to work with weaklings, you show Grul you stronger than he!” light cast Grulgor’s scowling face in deep shadows as behind him a flower of white radiance blazed, a massive crater blasted into the ground by the wyrm. Several of his trolls staggered, blown by the gusting breeze, and my defensive barrier dropped another few percent from the shockwave.

“Grul says you fight me now, weak man-thing, little weasel. If you stronger than Grul then Grul will pledge to you. Else Grul says he will eat you both!”

Grulgor… he’s insane! I’m so grateful the first of the Fae I ran into was Shaeula, if it had been Grulgor… ugh, just thinking about it makes me sick.

“All right then.” I said, as confidently as I could muster. Beside me Shaeula paled, eyes going wide.

“I do not think this is a wise idea, it…” Shaeula began urgently, but I squeezed her hand again reassuringly. Cutting her off I spoke.

“However, we don’t have to fight each other directly.” I said to the huge troll. “Why not fight against the wyrm, and then we can clearly see which of us is stronger. The one that slays the wyrm is the strongest. If you don’t find the result satisfying, then we can always fight each other after that. That way you could have twice the chance to work out which of us is the mightiest. Sounds good, right?”

Grulgor paused, looking confused. White light flared and the ground exploded not too far from him, pelting him with debris, but he didn’t even flinch. Shit, my barrier is bottoming out. Hurry up and make your decision.

“Grul agrees to your challenge little man-thing.” He said finally, ignoring the scream of one of his trolls as the wyrm dived, fangs ripping off an arm in a welter of gore. “Grul will kill the white snake and then eat you both.” He let out a great bellow, to which his surviving trolls responded to with roars of their own. Those that were hammering against my shattered barrier stopped and turned towards the wyrm, eyes wild.

“Are you sure this is a wise idea?” Shaeula was worried. “Grulgor only thinks with his muscles, he has no room for a mind. He will likely forget what he is doing and attack us if we get too close-close.”

“It’s a risk I know, but we need to handle our problems one at a time.” and in the worst case I’ll take you and flee back to the Material. Even so, I couldn’t deny there was huge danger involved in this. After all, one direct hit from the wyrm’s breath and we would be done… putting that aside I smiled bravely and continued. “If we kill the wyrm then we win. If not… we worry about it then.”

“Reckless as ever I see.” Shaeula muttered. She squeezed my hand back before extracting it and wiping her sweat-slicked brow.

Damn that’s cute.

“I will stand by your side, my foolish master Akio, as I have pledged. May we not regret this-this!”

I’ll do everything I can to make sure we don’t. The rest is up to luck. And we usually have that on our side! As I prepared to give my own instructions Shaeula was barking her own orders to her kin.

“Split up and spread out in all directions, and then try and draw the wyrm’s attention.” Shaeula ordered all her kin except the Kamaitachi. “We need to pull the wyrm away from our Territory-Territory.”

At her words the weasels and black-furred elites scattered in all directions, rushing out of the faltering protective barrier and towards the river. As they went they fired arrows and slung stones towards the looming wyrm, futile attacks that would do no damage to its iron scales.

“Are you sure? What about your kin?” I asked as we passed through the barrier ourselves, moving towards Grulgor and his trolls who were ripping up chunks of earth and stone and turning them into projectiles.

“I feel pain for their sacrifice, but thanks to you I can restore them quickly with the Barracks. Their deaths will not be meaningless or permanent-permanent.”

“Well, their sacrifices will not be in vain.” I promised, as the wyrm annihilated several with a burning stream of light. Luckily this was angled away from us, grazing the edge of my Territory, crumbling more of the rapidly failing barrier. “As for us… we need to bring the wyrm to the ground. We stand a chance then, especially with Grulgor and his trolls.”

“And how do we go about that?” Shaeula asked, deflecting some debris with a flare of verdant wind energy. “Last time we could only wound it with your huge attack-attack.”

“We’ll use our wind energy to bring it down. Call wind from above and direct it to the head of the wyrm. That should naturally force it lower.” I turned to Grulgor and his trolls. “We are going to force the wyrm down. When it gets low enough grab it. If it keeps flying it’ll just kill us from a distance.”

“Grul says do not tell me what to do! Grul is strong, Grul can kill the snake without weak man and little weasel.”

“Prove it then when we drive it to the ground with our own mighty powers.” I baited him. Grulgor turned away with a scowl, so I ignored him and turned back to Shaeula. Hopefully the idiot will do what I tell him. This is a serious gamble, but since we can communicate, we can work together…

“All right. We’ve done what we can there, time for us to act. You are much better at using wind energy efficiently so you keep moving the wind down to his head from above. Draw out as much of the wind energy left in the Silo as you need.” I wish I hadn’t of wasted so much farming those spiders earlier, but maybe the extra strength Shaeula has gained will offset that.

“And you?” she asked.

“I’ll compress it and direct it. I’m a bit better at understanding the way the wind works, though I can’t deny you’ve made progress. It will be a combo attack, just like that magical girl anime you watched. If it goes well, we might just pull this off.” I glanced at the Kamaitachi. “And you… if you see an opening, aim your wind blades at its eyes. If we can blind it we can use that to our advantage.”

“Very well master. I shall begin the attack-attack!”

I felt the flow of wind energy as Shaeula coalesced a swirling vortex of wind above the wyrm, who was dive-bombing the trolls, sending them flying. The sky, which was a riot of rainbow colours shimmered green, like the northern lights were burning brightly. Sweat was running down her face, and her breath was coming in laboured gasps. This must be hard for her, she looks pretty fragile in her human form.

“I can… do this. I can! I have listened to your lectures on the wind many times now. I know what the air is-is!” she let out an impressive howl as she drew in yet more wind from the Silo, draining it nearly dry. She was also pulling in wind energy from all around us, the sparkling motes of white faux-snow that were falling due to the etheric tide turning green and being sucked in. Interesting. But I have no time to speculate now…

“You are doing great. Now it is my turn.” I ignored the burning of my heart and lunar nodes as I overstressed myself, drawing in what little wind energy was left in the silo and converting what aether I held to bolster my powers. Reaching up with my free hand, fingers spread, I made a grabbing gesture, closing my fist. As I did so the emerald waves of energy in the sky began to shrink inwards, collapsing into a spinning column of air rotating at a fierce speed. As the pain continued to build I pushed more and more air together, until I could hold it no longer.

“Now!” I cried. “Jupiter Descending!” My tribute to the fierce winds of the great red spot. No-one else here will get it, though…

Thinking inane thoughts I joined with Shaeula to direct the spinning vortex of compressed wind energy and air downwards. The wyrm must have sensed something was wrong, as he stopped his attacks on the trolls and fleeing weaselkin long enough to look up.

Too late though… pulling ether from the Silo I burned it to wind energy, turning the tip of the massive flow of wind into a thin drill. The gale struck at the base of the neck of the wyrm, driving it downwards, blood and scales scattering.

The impact of the blow caused Shaeula to lose control, staggering backwards, her strength spent. I struggled to keep the force together, slamming the wyrm to the ground with a crunch, dirt and rock exploding everywhere. Shit, if it hadn’t moved then we might have decapitated it. Still, mission accomplished, the wyrm is down.

As I opened my mouth to shout to the trolls to attack, the strain of keeping the wyrm pressed down causing me to cough silvery blood, the wyrm turned to look at me. Rainbow eyes shining it opened its mouth, and a surge of white light leapt forth…

Oh… shit…